Paperback 920: Frankenstein / Mary Shelley (Collier)

Paperback 920: Collier (unnumbered) (6th ptg, 1973)

Title: Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
Cover artist: Milton Glaser

Estimated value: $5-10

Best things about this cover:

• Milton Glaser rules. So cool to see his '60s psychedelic style brought to bear on Frankie's monster.
• I love how this painting makes the monster soft, serene, beautiful, human.
• I should really reread this. It's been forever.

Best things about this back cover:

• Blah, text. Next.

Page 123~

"I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me. You would not call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness; and, instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth."

God I love this. One of literature's great break-up speeches.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 919: The Ugly American / William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick (Crest d365)

Paperback 919: Crest d365 (12th ptg, 1963)

Title: The Ugly American
Authors: William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick
Cover artist: Uncredited

Estimated value: $8-10

Best things about this cover:

• Aw, c'mon. Brando's not so bad to look at.
• "My prosthetic chin, she should come out to ... here, I think."
• Ooh, Screenplay by Stewart Stern! You sold me, book!

Best things about this back cover:

• But it is a free country, so ... this is like saying "If Gravity Did Not Exist..." and then showing the book floating off into space.
• I tend not to ignore slashing, Time Magazine, but thanks for the heads-up.
• This book is devastating, blunt, forceful, persuasive, urgent, fascinating, powerful, searching, and slashing, but it's not frank, so fuck it.

Page 123~

A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious. Perhaps they're frightened and defensive; or maybe they're not properly trained and make mistakes out of ignorance.

I'm just gonna leave that one there.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]