The many faces of Frankenstein

Here's an article from the Western Mail in Wales that I'm posting in honor of Frankenstein Month over at The Groovy Age of Horror:

WHEN Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote her masterpiece Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, she could not have had any idea of the many stage adaptations that would result from her book, which is recognised by many critics as the first science fiction novel. And as for the numerous film adaptations, admittedly very loose ones, you wonder what she would have thought of them had movies been invented in her lifetime (1797-1851). Edison brought out a short 12- minute version in 1910 in which Charles Stanton Ogle was the monster. However, the first full-length Frankenstein film was released in 1931 - exactly 80 years after Shelley's death - and starred Colin Clive as Doctor Frankenstein and Boris Karloff as the bizarre monster with a bolt in his neck. Since then there have been around 140 spin-offs of Mary Shelley's monster.