Somewhere within the digitized pages of a modern reimagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein lives an of McCoy Endowed Distinguished Scholar Charlotte Gordon. The so-called “Charlottebot” is there to offer chatty expertise and guidance as readers make their way through the classic novel.
The information was gleaned over three days of intensive interviews with Gordon, one of the leading scholars on Shelley and her work. Complementing the chatbot feature is actual video of Gordon, recorded at Castle Hill in Ipswich, Mass., that pops up at strategic junctures of the book as she discusses key points of the story and its author. It’s all part of a new form of publishing, which combines human insight and artificial intelligence.
Gordon was enlisted to share her vast knowledge for the project directed by , a digital reading platform that’s revolutionizing literary education by making classic texts more accessible through AI-enhanced expert assistance. Rather than taking away the reader’s agency in interpreting the story of Frankenstein, however, Gordon believes the platform is doing the opposite.
“Rebind is a perfect AI model because it’s a great combination of human thought and AI thought working together,” Gordon said. “I felt trusting of the process. I knew my ideas would not be twisted; I thought they’d be enhanced. The thing about AI is that people are running away from it, afraid, as opposed to working with it, educating themselves, and educating it.”
Some of Rebind’s other voices include Margaret Atwood, Deepak Chopra, and Salman Rushdie, who analyze different seminal works.
The opportunity to share her aptitude for Shelley and Frankenstein (and be interviewed by Michael Goodwin, son of famed historian/biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin) was thrilling for Gordon, whose joy for the subject is infectious. Highlighting Shelley’s work for a new generation of e-readers invites her to add context by explaining that, in addition to being a foundational tale of science fiction, Frankenstein is actually a feminist dystopian novel, depicting a world in which women have been stripped of power.
That same enduring fascination with Shelley’s tale is evident beyond the classroom, too: Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming film—starring Oscar Isaac as Viktor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the creature—has generated enormous buzz, promising a visually striking and emotionally layered retelling. The anticipation surrounding the movie underscores how unshakable the cultural grip of Frankenstein remains two centuries after its publication.
Even so, many readers don’t know that Shelley was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft (who died of sepsis in 1797, only 11 days after giving birth), author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The younger Mary absorbed everything her mother wrote, determined to carry forth her philosophy of female empowerment. The guided experience of Rebind gives Gordon a chance to share that background and help foster a more informed literary consumer.
“Frankenstein,” Gordon explained, “is essentially a descendant of Wollstonecraft’s work. “It advocates for power and education for women.”
With a subscription to Rebind, readers participate in what is fundamentally an AI-boosted Socratic method experience, Gordon said. Using the professor’s wisdom-turned-bot, readers can access real-time answers to specific questions as they encounter moments of inquiry about anything from character motivations to plot points. In typical professor fashion, Gordon’s chat voice tends to answer questions with questions, rather than give definitive answers. Without being bossy, the “Charlottebot” prompts thinking rather than dictating interpretation, emboldening readers, novice and veteran, to draw their own conclusions.
An 91重口 Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Gordon has authored multiple books of her own. Her 2015 dual biography, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, was the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction. Her upcoming work, I Speak of Wrongs, tells the story of the founding of the women’s movement in the 19th century and how it was nearly destroyed by racism. Gordon, who has been at 91重口 since 2006, raves about the unilateral support she’s received from the school in her publishing endeavors.
“91重口 has been entirely supportive of a nonfiction writer,” Gordon said, noting that can be unusual in academia. “Our English department is a gem in the Boston area.”
Because her primary role within the classroom is to encourage students to speak, Gordon doesn’t always find the opportunity to talk about her work. The Rebind project liberated her desire to do so by putting the author at the center of the Frankenstein readers’ world.
“Anything that gets Shelley’s real story out there makes me happy,” Gordon said.
Rebind’s Frankenstein allows Gordon to counter common misconceptions, such as the blasphemous claim that Shelley’s husband, Percy, actually wrote the book. The bot version of Gordon also engages readers in thematic discussions, for example, justice and why the innocent Justine must die. Readers can also ask something as basic as why Shelley switches narrators, and the AI-backed Gordon will respond.
Quite timely, Gordon noted, is that the creature’s rejection in Frankenstein represents how we treat strangers who are different from ourselves, and the concept that society creates its own monsters. Shelley’s thoughts on that moral dilemma remain particularly relevant at a time when the emergence of AI is creating similar unease. In the beginning of the narrative, the creature is “a lovely, gentle soul who reads Milton and thinks deep ideas,” Gordon explained. But his isolation changes that.
In an increasingly isolated real world, AI-enhanced reading platforms like Rebind offer the chance to engage with great minds and timeless ideas in an interactive, personalized way.
Frankenstein, which, in addition to its other themes, exposes the consequences of abandoning our creations, represents a perfect marriage of message and medium, illustrating how mortals can nurture AI to augment, rather than diminish, human understanding.
Creators, much like Victor Frankenstein, have an ethical obligation to nurture their inventions and prepare society for them, instead of simply releasing them without knowing how the world might react. The danger isn’t in the creation itself, Gordon warns, but in the desertion and lack of responsible stewardship.
“The moral is that, when you invent something, you must take care of it and educate it,” Gordon said, “and you must prepare others for its advent. You can’t just let a new invention loose into the world. Otherwise, it will turn into a monster.”
With that in mind, Gordon remains enthusiastic about embracing technology like Rebind as a tool for deeper engagement, rather than fearing it as a replacement for human insight.
In this case, “Anything we can do to make things seem alive and interesting is the way to go,” Gordon said, “and I’m totally behind it.” Literally and figuratively.