37 Comments

Hey Paul, as a Lit teacher I taught many of these novels ... Huck Finn, Frankenstein, Gatsby, Tale of Two Cities, etc. In so doing, I've read them multiple times ... I think I've read Gatsby 15 times. And I always seem to find something I'd missed before. Twain, Fitzgerald ... beautiful writing and writing to emulate. Anyway, cool resource. -- Jim

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Thanks for the input. I've tried my hand at an instalment of Frankenstein. Love to hear what you think. Should I carry on? https://pau1.substack.com/p/frankenstein

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Her writing is a bit tedious. But remember her parents were both intellectuals and she was only 18 at the time. But well worth it. Focus on themes: Man playing God, Isolation (not just the creature, but Victor himself), Ambition vs. fallibility, Revenge, etc. It is gothic romance, but also considered the first science fiction novel. Pretty amazing for a teenage girl.

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I included a link to an article about the author. https://archive.is/iHo99

It might be a cool idea if you'd like to summarize the letters as they come out. In a Lit teacher's voice. What do you think? A collaboration? Just thinking out loud...

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Thanks, this is a very interesting article. I did not know she was married to Shelley. I think I need an English Lit class, one more interesting that what I took five million years ago. However I can probably learn a lot of that on Substack!

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That's one reason I like writing this newsletter...I learn every day too!

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Your comment is awesome, btw.

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And it is still relevant today ... i.e. CRISPR (genetic editing), AI, etc.

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She was only 18??! Amazing.

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Mary Shelley's mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, commonly thought of as the first true feminist poet. Unfortunately, Mary Wollstonecraft died while giving birth to Mary Shelley. Apparently, Mary Shelley spent many of her early days all day in the cemetery with her mother. So you kind of see where she got some of her ideas for Frankenstein.

There's a great story behind how she came to write Frankenstein. She did it on a dare from Lord Byron at Byron's chateau in Geneva in 1816.

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This is fascinating, thanks Jim. She wrote it on a dare! From Lord Byron!

You can't make this stuff up.

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Hmmm...kinda creepy - the cemetery thing. Great addition, thanks.

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I think it's a great idea... to keep these wonderful classic tales alive among all the drivel passing for literature out there!

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Is there drivel on the internet? LOL

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Not just on the interweb...

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Cool idea...would enjoy getting one chapter from different autobiographies daily as a concept...basically transforming creator content pre net into bloggable insights...specifically need Rodney Dangerfield, Phyllis Diller and David Lee Roth to start...

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That's a great idea. A biography series.

Do you listen to the Founders podcast by David Senra. He talks about all the people's biographies he's read. (has over 100 different reviews so far). The latest one is great: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2eDthgkutUIrgKUKplBaEz?si=b467ffb440bd4350

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Thanks for the rec...haven't but will start today :)

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Great round-up, thank you! I'm new to substack (loving it so far!) but my understanding is that it doesn't have a drip/automatic function on emails yet. So how are these newsletters handling sending out a fixed sequence of serialized chapters to different subscribers who sign up at different times? Thanks! :)

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Hi Micheal. Thanks for the comment. For the DraculaDiaries (https://draculadaily.substack.com/), Matt just schedules his pre-written posts, and they live on the website in the book's natural order. (Q&A with Matt, the Dracula Newsletter Writer: https://pau1.substack.com/p/dracula ). It would be up to the reader to go to the website/app and start the book at the first post.

Hope that answers your question!

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Thank you! :)

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Here is Matt's welcome email. He tells how his process works. Keep in mind that the Dracula Diaries are in their 3rd re-publishing round. Each year it starts in May and finishes a few months later:

"Matt here!

The first passages of Dracula start on May 3 - so that’s when you’ll start getting regular emails. If that’s in the past for you, you can catch up in the email archive here. If you want to catch up faster there’s always those new-fangled printed books.

You’ll get one email with the day’s events of Dracula, as they happen. Some days you won’t get email at all, and a few times in the summer we’ll go weeks without an update. But never fear - Dracula is inexorable.

If you’re excited, it would mean a lot if you would share this with others. Reading something like this on a published schedule means that you can read it with friends, and this classic story can work like water-cooler TV. Could you believe what Mina said? or Is Arthur going to think vampires are sexy now? Anyways: it’s fun to have more people along for the ride."

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I think transmitting these books, in a serialized format, is an excellent idea.

Many people considerr me very well read and highly literate, but I am the first to admit that I often groan when confronted with a 500 page volume.

Very simply, there are only so many hours in a day. Sometimes we are bombarded with too many damn things to read. Of course, social media only makes it worse. Millions of self-important divas feel compelled to get up on a soap box and rant ad nauseum about every meagre, insignificant thought that percoltes in their petty and paranoid mind.

When the novels are sent to us is a serialzed format, we won't feel as if our inbox just got weighted down with a 5 hour piece of homework in the form of a 500 page book. We can read a little bit each day and that will make the verbiage do down with less effort.

And Man, wouldn't it be great to put down the BS of so many contemporary scribblers. I mean I am sick and tired of the gossippy little pricks talking about Charles and Camilla and Harry and William. George Orwell was a brvae and good man, and I think I need more of his honest excellence in my life.

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Thanks for the comment, David. I agree. Most of us have the attention span of a hummingbird these days.

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Anything that promotes classic literature, including online serialization, is a good idea. But I’d much prefer to read the book than have it metered out in a newsletter. I find the pages of a book preferable to a blinking screen.

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Plus, you can't make notes in the margin...Thanks for the comment, John!

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Might be interesting to do a similar thing with comics, as a way of building community.

https://comicbookplus.com/

https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/

https://www.comicstriplibrary.org/about

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Excellent idea! I’ll check out your recommendations.

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Great idea. I find though I end up binge reading: if I had to wait a day for the next bit I would end up tearing my hair out. So for me, this sort of thing would work well as a sampler, and if I liked it I'd probably go and borrow the book from a library or buy it.

I think another consideration is that there would have to be an index so that people late to the party could start at #1

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Good points,Terry. Thank you.

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Cheers, Paul

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Yeah. It is amazing, really. Byron and his doctor John Polidori were hosting Percy and Mary Shelley during the coldest, most miserable summer in Europe in centuries. Percy and Mary had just run off from England. (Percy left behind his pregnant wife ... nice guy, eh?).

Anyway, nobody could go out, so Byron and Polidori got really drunk (laudanum was supposedly involved, too) and told the guests to come up with a scary story. Mary took it seriously. '

Yes, Lord Byron. Quite a character. Look him up ... "mad, bad and dangerous to know."

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Thanks for this Paul, I didn't know this was a thing. I appreciate the long list you provided and would love to see more classic novel serials on Substack.

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Some very creative people out there! Thanks for the comment, Donna!

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June 3, 2023
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Nice! Thanks for your answer, Mitchell.

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