I recently had the opportunity to see a rare book exhibit at a Wisconsin university relating to Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." Of particular interest, I took note of one glass case in which were enclosed occult texts printed centuries ago. I wrote down several of the titles:
- Agrippa, Three Books of Occult. London, 1651
- Albertus Magnus. (Didn't get the title) 1495
- Paracelsus, Prognosticatio. France, 1560 (this was in Latin)
- Secrets of Albertus Magnus, Of the vertues of herbes, stones & certain beasts - whereunto is newly added a short discourse of the seven planets, governing the nativities of CHILDREN.
- Paracelsus, Of the supreme mysteries of nature: of the spirits of the planets, occult philosophy, the magical, sympathetical & antipathetical case of worries [not sure of my handwriting here] & diseases, the mysteries of the 12 signs of the zodiac. London, 1656. (This was in English.)
It was fascinating to view these centuries-old, fragile yellowed books, most of them quite small, with their tiny, fine diagrams, schemata, and occult symbols.
It wasn't until later that I remembered that in the novel, before he begins his scientific studies, Victor dabbles in the occult, even attempting to raise the dead (albeit he is only a teenager at the time). The only movie version to portray this, as far as I know, is "Terror of Frankenstein," a Swedish-Irish co-production directed by Calvin Floyd, which portrays this quite well in one brief scene.
I consulted the novel and found that the books mentioned include the very ones displayed in the exhibit. Namely, in Chapters 2 and 3, Victor speaks of his early interest in Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus.
It will be interesting to see whether Victor's early dabblings are included in the upcoming Hallmark production of Frankenstein with "our own" (well, almost) Alec Newman as Victor. So far, Calvin Floyd's is the only version faithful to the novel, but I'm hopeful the Hallmark production might be the second. I've taken another look at the production stills, and it looks very promising. And I have no doubt that Newman's acting will be an improvement over the actor in the other film. Hope I remember to watch/tape it.