Frankenstein - The face

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frankenstein - The Face (Original title: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Book One: Prodigal Son ) is the first part of a three-novel trilogy by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson . Volume 2 - Der Körper (original title: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Book Two: City of Night ) appeared just like the first volume in the USA in 2005 and in Germany in 2006. Volume 3 - Der Schatten (Original title: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Book Three: Dead and Alive ) was published in the USA in 2009 and in Germany in 2010.

The series was inspired by the novel of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley . The story builds on the original story of Shelley and deals with the creation of artificial humans by the immortal Dr. Frankenstein using modern biotechnology techniques in the present.

content

General and formal structure

The story takes place today and is set in New Orleans with the exception of the first chapter, which takes place in a monastery in Tibet . It is formally divided into 97 individual and numbered chapters without chapter headings, which usually involve a change of place and person. In terms of content, Koontz mainly draws on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, which is known as the legend, but also takes up numerous other literary sources in the discussions, such as 1984 by George Orwell or Pinocchio . He also names the policemen Jonathan Harker after the novel of the same character in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (a lawyer who sold the Count Dracula a house in London) and its colleagues Dwight Frye after the eponymous actor Dwight Frye , who in the 1930 film version of Dracula , the Role of Renfield and in James Whales Frankenstein played the malformed assistant Fritz. The name Karloff for the disembodied head also comes from an actor in the classic Frankenstein film - he is named after Boris Karloff , who played Frankenstein's monster in 1931.

action

In the opening scene of the retired in the monastery in Rombuk receives Tibet living Deucalion , the Dr. about 200 years ago by Frankenstein was put together from body parts, a message in which he learns that his creator is also still alive and is in New Orleans under the name Victor Helios . He then sets off to look for it. A series of murders is currently taking place in New Orleans in which the murderer steals body parts and internal organs from his victims. Detective Carson O'Connor and her partner Michael Maddison have been entrusted with the case and are not making any headway with the investigation, but at the same time have to assert themselves against two older detectives, Jonathan Harker and Dwight Frye.

Roy Pribeaux, dubbed the "surgeon" in the media, is looking for the perfect woman, and Jonathan Harker, a creature from Helios' laboratory, is looking for happiness. Roy Pribeaux finds his dream woman, literally, piece by piece. He selects his victims for salient beauty features, anesthetizes and kills them with a stab in the heart, then he removes the objects of desire and adds them to his collection. Through the press he learns that he has also been charged with the murders of an apparent copycat perpetrator who, however, murders men and removes their internal organs. The killer is Jonathan Harker, a police officer who, like Carson O'Connor and Michael Maddison, works for the homicide squad. Harker is an artificially created human being by Victor Helios, and like many of these, he is desperate, angry, and jealous of ordinary people. Although he is not allowed to kill without the order of his Creator, he overcomes this mental barrier and kills people he considers particularly happy in order to dissect them so that he can discover the reason for their happiness. One of his victims is the also artificially created Bobby Allwine, in whom the coroners later encounter several morphological abnormalities such as a double circulatory system and a particularly hardened skull. After Pribeaux's murder of a cotton candy seller with particularly beautiful eyes, Jonathan Harker kills him so that he can blame his murders on him.

In the meantime, Deucalion contacts O'Connor at Allwine's apartment and later visits her autistic brother Arnie, luring her to the Luxe cinema, where he lives with Jelly Biggs. He tells her about Victor Helios past, his story and the connection between Helios' creatures and the murders. In the end, Carson and Michael find out the truth about Jonathan Harker and barely stop him from committing another murder on his neighbor Jenna and later on the police psychologist Kathy. Harker is able to escape both times and in the end is pursued by Carson and Michael, who with Deucalion's help catch and kill him. But before they can arrest him, Harker dies because a goblin-like creature breaks out of him and disappears into the sewer. In the end, Deucalion clarifies the whole truth to Carson and Michael and asks for their help in his plan to kill his creator.

Parallel to the main story, there are repeated changes to the activities of Victor Helios, who lives in a large hospital property on the outskirts of New Orleans and creates and experiments with his artificial people in his secret clinic, The Hands of Mercy . His wife is Erika vier, also created by him, whom he has endowed with emotions in order to be able to torment her. In a secret laboratory, he experiments with Karloff, a being that consists only of a head in a nutrient solution and a hand that he can move telekinetically. With the help of his hand, Karloff gets Erika's attention and persuades her to kill him by switching off his equipment. When Helios finds out, he kills Erika four and creates Erika five. Another experiment is Randal Six, who was created as an autistic work slave and with whose help Helios is researching how he can use autism for himself. Randal learns through a newspaper about Arnie O'Connor, who is also autistic and can laugh and be happy. Randal escapes from the clinic and makes his way to Arnie, where he hides under the house at the end of the novel.

people

The following people play a central role in the novel:

  • Deucalion was founded about 200 years ago by Dr. Victor Frankenstein was created in Austria and spent most of his life so far as the fairground attraction “The Monster” in monstrosity shows before he went to a monastery in Tibet. Deucalion came to New Orleans after learning that its creator was still alive and is helping police investigate Jonathan Harker.
  • Victor Helios , actually Dr. Frankenstein, is the creator of Deucalion and numerous other beings that arise in his laboratory. Like Deucalion, he himself is immortal through numerous changes in his body and has built a biotechnological company in New Orleans as well as a breast for his beings, which in the distant future as the New Race are to extinguish and replace humanity.
  • Jelly Biggs is a man who has worked as a fat person like Deucalion in monstrosity shows and lives with Deucalion in the Luxe Theater.
  • Carson O'Connor is a police officer and, together with her partner Michael Maddison, is entrusted with solving the "surgeon" murders.
  • Michael Maddison is also a police officer and supports his partner Carson O'Connor.
  • Arnie O'Connor is Carson's little brother. He is autistic and is cared for by the housekeeper Vicky Chou. Randal six, an autistic being from the breeding ground of Victor Helios, becomes aware of him through a newspaper clipping and tries to snatch the secret of happiness from him.
  • Dwight Frye is a police officer and Jonathan Harker's partner.
  • Kathleen (Kathy) Burke is a police psychologist and a good friend of Carson O'Connor.
  • Roy Pribeaux is a serial killer who, in search of the perfect woman, kills women who he believes have perfect body parts and removes and collects them from corpses.
  • Jonathan Harker is a creature from Helios' hatchery. He's a police detective looking for the organ that makes people happy. He kills people and dissects them.
  • Erika vier is the artificially created wife of Victor Helios.
  • Randal six is an artificially created autistic person on whom Helios tests the possibilities of a working class for the time after his beings have taken over the world.
  • Father Duchaine is an artificially created human who was introduced into the Church as a Father.
  • Karloff is an artificially created being on whom Helios studies telekinesis. It consists of a rudimentary head in a nutrient solution and a hand that is not connected to it.

background

According to the prologue of the novel, the Frankenstein series was intended to be the script for a mini-television series entitled Dean Koontz Frankenstein , directed by Martin Scorsese for USA Network , which was to rework Mary Shelly's Frankenstein . However, when USA Network decided to change its story, Koontz decided to get out of the project and publish the script as a novel.

Based on the new script based on Koontz preparatory work, on which John Shiban worked, the television film Frankenstein was released in 2004, directed by Marcus Nispel .

reception

After the publication of the novel series, which is both nationally and internationally successful, several film adaptations were announced. In February 2010 a film adaptation by the producers Terry Botwick and Ralph Winter was announced, in 2012 a film adaptation by James V. Hart and his son Jake Hart for the American broadcaster TNT was announced.

Publications

supporting documents

  1. ^ "First of all ..." In: Dean Koontz: Frankenstein - The Face (translation by Ursula Gnade ), Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 2006; Pp. 5-6. ISBN 978-3-453-56504-3
  2. ↑ Frankenstein in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  3. ^ Frankenstein: book series by Dean Koontz is filmed. ( Memento of the original from February 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On filmstarts.de, February 16, 2010. Accessed January 25, 2015 - December 31, 2017, not available.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.filmstarts.de
  4. ↑ Nellie Andreeva: TNT To Develop 'Frankenstein' Drama Series Based On Dean Koontz's Novels. On deadline.com, October 17, 2012; Retrieved January 25, 2015