Lawrence C. Connolly

Author: Lawrence C. Connolly

  • Thinking Like a Writer: Finding the Words

    For Mark Twain, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” For Mary Shelley, it is the difference between creature and being. We can see her deliberation in the excerpt (at left) of her Frankenstein manuscript, where she makes a choice that best…

  • One Night in Geneva:
    The Birth of a Prosperous Progeny

    In 1831, her first novel having achieved pop-culture status thanks to a string of adaptations in England, Europe, and America (see last week’s post), Mary Shelley introduced the second edition of Frankenstein by writing: “Once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.” Little could she have foreseen just how prosperous it would…

  • T. P. Cooke’s Demon:
    The First Pop-Culture “Frankenstein”

    An explosion. Fire and smoke. Laboratory doors shatter. The Demon appears in a blast of red flame! That’s how the Frankenstein monster made its entrance in the first dramatic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel. Loosely adapted by Richard Brinsley Peake and starring actor T. P. Cooke as the monster (referred to as “The Demon” in…

  • A Child and a Monster go to the Lake, or …
    “What shall we throw in now?”

    Set in central Spain shortly after the Spanish revolution, Victor Erice’s film The Spirit of the Beehive opens with the children of a rural village watching James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931). Two of the children, sisters Ana and Isabelle, watch wide-eyed as the monster encounters a young girl by a mountain lake. It’s the same scene you’ll…

  • A Monster of a Mix Up:
    The Strange Case of Creepy No. 10

    Today we continue unpacking some of the titles mentioned during my conversation with Brentley Palmer and Nicholas Schwartz in the Frankenstein installment of their Horror Drafts podcast. if you haven’t listened to that discussion, you can find it here. As for the previous blog posts in this series, you can find them here and here. …

  • Not Your Universal Monster:
    The Hammer Frankenstein Series

    It’s alive! Out of the lab and in your earbuds, the latest episode of the Horror Drafts podcast featuring a two-hour discussion of all things Frankenstein is available now. Here’s the description from the podcast site: This week we are joined by author, screenwriter, playwright, podcaster, and all-around Frankenstein expert Lawrence C. Connolly to draft…