Opening of Frankenstein

Mary Shelley opens her novel, Frankenstein, with four letters from an explorer named Robert Walton. He is writing to his sister and explains the dangerous voyage he is going through to get to the North Pole. On his way to his destination Walton comes across a stranger and lets him on the ship. Walton and the stranger become close friends. But, this was a confusing opening and hard for me to understand. If I was to wite a ghost story I would begin it by describing the ghost and its back story, if it has a back story. After describing the ghost, I would then go into detail about how the ghost affects other people, such as if it haunts them. The story would then unravel further and tell what tasks the ghost wanted to complete before entering the after life.