Composing What May Not Be "Sad Trash": A Reconsideration of Mary Shelley's Use of Paracelsus in "Frankenstein"

According to Peterfreund, the critical commentary concerning the significance of Victor Frankenstein's three objects of youthful quasi-scientific study of Albertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, and Paracelsus, has followed the apparent lead of Mary Shelley's novel's interior voices. He further claims that those who have addressed the significance of Frankenstein's reading in Magnus, Agrippa, and Paracelsus, have typically downplayed the importance of that reading.