Hi all:
I normally don’t share posts on Sundays but as this book launches today and I had run out of space on my usual days, I thought you might have a bit of time to catch up on some reading on a Sunday. Sorry if you don’t…
The Face of a Monster: America’s Frankenstein by Patricia Earnest Suter
The year 2018 will herald the 200th anniversary of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The timing seems right for the story of a real monster. German-born immigrant Anton Probst arrived in New York in 1863. Within two hours of his arrival, he enlisted in the Union Army. During the American Civil War, Probst bore witness to mankind’s brutality. Afterwards, he became an inmate at the disreputable Blockley Almshouse in Philadelphia.
Frankenstein was first conceived by Shelley in 1816. Her monster was an embodiment of abandonment and loneliness, feelings Shelley shared. In despair, the creature resorted to violence. Fifty years after Frankenstein’s conception, Anton Probst adopted characteristics of Shelley’s monstrous creation. He became Philadelphia’s first mass-murderer when he slaughtered members of the Christopher Dearing family.
After his death, Probst’s story continued. The creature that he had become left a deep impression on the people of Philadelphia and New York. Researchers used Anton Probst’s body to show the effects of galvanization, the same means by which Frankenstein’s monster stirred to life. Incredibly, similarities surface between Shelley and her circle, her monster, and events that transpired when the blood of innocents was shed an ocean away. One defining difference is present. Unlike Shelley’s creature, the story of America’s monster is very real.
https://www.amazon.com/Face-Monster-Americas-Frankenstein/dp/069296519X/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Face-Monster-Americas-Frankenstein/dp/069296519X/
Here is the Press Release with a bit more information.
The Face of a Monster: America’s Frankenstein
Patricia Earnest Suter
Publishing 11th March 2018
Hardback: $14.99 E-book: $9.99
2018 will mark the 200th anniversary of
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Now is the time for the story of a real monster…
An original and imaginative blend of fiction and reality, The Face of a Monster tells the true story of Philadelphia’s first mass-murderer –Anton Probst—and the events which occurred fifty years after Frankenstein’s conception. This absorbing and well-documented account weaves Shelley’s famous novel with a similar tale of a very real monster.
As Patricia Earnest Suter researched atrocities committed in Philadelphia by a European-born immigrant named Anton Probst, it became clear he embodied all that is monstrous. The story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, a childhood favorite of Suter’s, easily came to mind.
Frankenstein, the classic gothic horror novel which has thrilled and engrossed readers for two centuries was first conceived by Shelley in 1816. Her monster personified abandonment and loneliness, feelings Shelley shared. In despair, the creature resorts to violence and the novel darkens into tragedy. Shelley’s masterpiece still maintains a strong grip on the imagination and has been the inspiration for numerous horror movies, television and stage adaptations.
Fifty years later, Anton Probst adopted characteristics of Shelley’s monstrous creation. German-born immigrant Anton Probst arrived in New York in 1863. Within two hours of his arrival he enlisted in the Union Army. During the American Civil War, Probst bore witness to mankind’s brutality. He later became Philadelphia’s first mass-murderer when he slaughtered members of the Dearing family.
After his death, Probst’s story continued. The creature that he had become left a deep impression on the people of Philadelphia and New York. Researchers used Anton Probst’s body to show the effects of galvanization[1], the same means by which Frankenstein’s monster stirred to life. Incredibly, Probst’s circumstances parallel not only Frankenstein’s monster, but those of Mary Shelley. Relying on primary sources wherever possible, The Face of a Monster is brought to life through the words of Shelley and her inner circle, as well as contemporary accounts of Probst from Philadelphia’s journalists and attorneys.
This is a story of life imitating art. Over the course of researching and writing The Face of a Monster: America’s Frankenstein Suter discovered that monsters exist and that her childhood belief was right: they almost always adopt human form.
About the author:
Pat Earnest Suter lives in Delaware with her family. She operates Earnest Archives and Library, a clearinghouse of Pennsylvania German documents. She is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and is the author of The Hanging of Susanna Cox: The True Story of Pennsylvania’s Most Notorious Infanticide and the Legend that has Kept It Alive, The Forgotten Nephew: D. E. Lick and Old Stumpstown and Peter Montelius: Printer and Teacher, Teacher and Printer.
For more information visit: www.earnestarchivesandlibrary.com; www.passedtime.com
[1] Originally in the 19th century, the term “galvanizing” was used to describe the administration of electric shocks
My review:
I was provided an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
Most of us have wondered more than once about the nature of fiction and the, sometimes, thin line separating reality from fiction. Although we assume that, on most occasions, fiction imitates reality, sometimes fiction can inspire reality (for better or for worse) and sometimes reality seems to imitate fiction (even if it is just a matter of perception). And although Slavoj Žižek and postmodernism might come to mind, none of those matters are new.
Suter’s non-fiction book combines three topics that are worthy of entire books (and some have been written about at length): Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Mary’s own life, and Anton Probst’s life and the murders he committed. Each chapter of the book alternates between the chronological (up to a point) stories of Shelley and Probst, and comparisons of the developments and events in the “life” (fictional, but nonetheless important) of Frankenstein’s creature. The author uses quotes and close- text-analysis of Frankenstein, and also interprets the text based on the biography of Shelley, to explain how the creature ended up becoming a monster. Although the novel is an early example of science-fiction/horror, many of the subjects it touched belong in literature at large. Nature versus nurture (is the creature bad because of the parts used to make him, or because nobody shows him care and affection?), science versus morality and religion (can knowledge be its own justification, or should there be something of a higher order limiting experiments), prejudice, mob mentality, revenge, loneliness and isolation…
Shelley’s life, marked by tragedy from the very beginning (her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, died when Mary was only eleven days old) was dominated by men who never returned her affection and who were happy to blame her for any disasters that happened. She was part of a fascinating group, but, being a woman, she was never acknowledged and did not truly belong in the same circle, and it seems an example of poetic justice that her book has survived, and even overtaken in fame, the works of those men that seemed so important at the time (Lord Byron, Percy B. Shelley…).
I was familiar with Frankenstein and with the life of Mary Shelley and her mother (although I am not an expert) but had not heard about Probst. The author has done extensive research on the subject and provides detailed information about the life of the murderer, and, perhaps more interesting still, his trial and what happened after. That part of the book is invaluable to anybody interested in the development of crime detection in late XIX century America (his crimes took place in Philadelphia, although he was born in Germany), the nature of trials at the time, the history of the prison service, executions, the role of the press and the nature of true crime publications, and also in the state of medical science in that era and the popular experiments and demonstrations that abounded (anatomical dissections, phrenology, galvanism were all the rage, and using the bodies of those who had been punished with the death penalty for experiments was quite common). Human curiosity has always been spurred by the macabre, and then, as much as now, the spectacle of a being that seemed to have gone beyond the bounds of normal behaviour enthralled the public. People stole mementos from the scene of the crime, queued to see the bodies of the victims, and later to see parts of the murderer that were being exhibited. Some things seem to change little.
Each part of the book is well researched and well written (some of the events are mentioned more than once to elaborate a point but justifiably so) and its overall argument is a compelling one, although perhaps not one that will attract all readers. There are indeed parallels and curious similarities in the cases, although for some this might be due to the skill of the writer and might not be evident to somebody looking at Probst’s case in isolation. Even then, this does not diminish from the expertise of the author or from the engrossing topics she has chosen. This is a book that makes its readers think about fame, literature, creativity, family, imaginary and true monsters, crime, victims, and the way we talk and write about crime and criminals. Then and now.
I’d recommend this book to readers interested in Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s work and life, also to people interested in true crime, in particular, XIX century crime in the US. As a writer, I thought this book would be of great interest to writers researching crime enforcement and serial killers in XIX century America, emigration, and also the social history of the time. And if we feel complacent when we read about the behaviour of the experts and the common people when confronted with Probst and his murders, remember to look around you and you’ll see things haven’t changed that much.
The author also provides extensive notes at the end of the book, where she cites all her sources.
In case you want to check, I dedicated a post to Mary Shelley and her mother, here.
Thanks to the publisher, to the author, and to all of you for reading, and remember to like, share, comment, click, and REVIEW!
