Underlying all of it is the rankling conceit that science, as epitomized by Victor, is a masculine endeavor, whereas femininity is embodied by a survival of the ancient European Sapphic witch-cult (which also has preserved a great deal of alchemical knowledge).
Of course, I'm closer to Victor than a lesbian cunning woman, so this no doubt explains my low opinion of the book.
It was interesting reading this just after Alias Grace. Both focus on the life stories of women, told from the woman's point of view, with epistolary commentary added by men who don't quite understand the central character. Furthermore, both main characters have something of a fear of doctors, due to some inexpert meddling with ladyparts. In the one case, a botched abortion, in the other an inexpert use of forceps in childbirth (and a complete disdain for the wisdom of midwives and their simples).
Similarly, both books make significant mention of Mesmerism/hypnotism and both protagonists undergo treatment
There are other strange connections with other recent reading material. Memoirs and Pynchon's Mason & Dixon both mention Vaucanson's duck, though rather differently.
Victor admires the work of de Saussure, who has already figured in my current nonfiction reading, the Age of Wonder, which is so far fascinating. (De Saussure, a Swiss scientist and devoted alpinist, may have served as a partial model for Shelley's Victor Frankenstein.)
Completing the round-robin of connections, Mason & Dixon were involved in making measurements of the transit of Venus in South Africa, while Age of Wonder begins with the highly interesting life-story of Joseph Banks, who was a part of Cook's voyage to measure the transit of Venus in Tahiti, where it seems the crew (most definitely including Banks) enjoyed their three month stay on the island.
