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Frankenstein
or
The Modern Prometheus
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
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Letter 1
To Mrs. Saville, England
St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17—
You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has
accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which
you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I arrived
here yesterday, and my first task is to assure my dear sister
of my welfare and increasing confidence in the success of
my undertaking.
I am already far north of London, and as I walk in the
streets of Petersburgh, I feel a cold northern breeze play
upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves and fills me with
delight. Do you understand this feeling? This breeze,
which has travelled from the regions towards which I am
advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes.
Inspirited by this wind of promise, my daydreams become
more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that
the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents
itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and
delight. There, Margaret, the sun is forever visible, its
broad disk just skirting the horizon and diffusing a
perpetual splendour. There—for with your leave, my
sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators— there
snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea,
ads:
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we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in
beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable
globe. Its productions and features may be without
example, as the phenomena of the heavenly bodies
undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What
may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may
there discover the wondrous power which attracts the
needle and may regulate a thousand celestial observations
that require only this voyage to render their seeming
eccentricities consistent forever. I shall satiate my ardent
curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before
visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by
the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are
sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death and to
induce me to commence this labourious voyage with the
joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his
holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native
river. But supposing all these conjectures to be false, you
cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer
on all mankind, to the last generation, by discovering a
passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at
present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining
the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only
be effected by an undertaking such as mine.
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These reflections have dispelled the agitation with
which I began my letter, and I feel my heart glow with an
enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven, for nothing
contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady
purpose—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual
eye. This expedition has been the favourite dream of my
early years. I have read with ardour the accounts of the
various voyages which have been made in the prospect of
arriving at the North Pacific Ocean through the seas
which surround the pole. You may remember that a
history of all the voyages made for purposes of discovery
composed the whole of our good Uncle Thomas’ library.
My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond
of reading. These volumes were my study day and night,
and my familiarity with them increased that regret which I
had felt, as a child, on learning that my father’s dying
injunction had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark
in a seafaring life.
These visions faded when I perused, for the first time,
those poets whose effusions entranced my soul and lifted it
to heaven. I also became a poet and for one year lived in a
paradise of my own creation; I imagined that I also might
obtain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer
and Shakespeare are consecrated. You are well acquainted
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with my failure and how heavily I bore the
disappointment. But just at that time I inherited the
fortune of my cousin, and my thoughts were turned into
the channel of their earlier bent.
Six years have passed since I resolved on my present
undertaking. I can, even now, remember the hour from
which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise. I
commenced by inuring my body to hardship. I
accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to
the North Sea; I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst,
and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the
common sailors during the day and devoted my nights to
the study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and
those branches of physical science from which a naval
adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage.
Twice I actually hired myself as an under-mate in a
Greenland whaler, and acquitted myself to admiration. I
must own I felt a little proud when my captain offered me
the second dignity in the vessel and entreated me to
remain with the greatest earnestness, so valuable did he
consider my services.
And now, dear Margaret, do I not deserve to
accomplish some great purpose? My life might have been
passed in ease and luxury, but I preferred glory to every
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enticement that wealth placed in my path. Oh, that some
encouraging voice would answer in the affirmative! My
courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate,
and my spirits are often depressed. I am about to proceed
on a long and difficult voyage, the emergencies of which
will demand all my fortitude: I am required not only to
raise the spirits of others, but sometimes to sustain my
own, when theirs are failing.
This is the most favourable period for travelling in
Russia. They fly quickly over the snow in their sledges;
the motion is pleasant, and, in my opinion, far more
agreeable than that of an English stagecoach. The cold is
not excessive, if you are wrapped in furs— a dress which I
have already adopted, for there is a great difference
between walking the deck and remaining seated
motionless for hours, when no exercise prevents the blood
from actually freezing in your veins. I have no ambition to
lose my life on the post-road between St. Petersburgh and
Archangel.
I shall depart for the latter town in a fortnight or three
weeks; and my intention is to hire a ship there, which can
easily be done by paying the insurance for the owner, and
to engage as many sailors as I think necessary among those
who are accustomed to the whale-fishing. I do not intend
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to sail until the month of June; and when shall I return?
Ah, dear sister, how can I answer this question? If I
succeed, many, many months, perhaps years, will pass
before you and I may meet. If I fail, you will see me again
soon, or never.
Farewell, my dear, excellent Margaret. Heaven shower
down blessings on you, and save me, that I may again and
again testify my gratitude for all your love and kindness.
Your affectionate brother,
R. Walton
Letter 2
To Mrs. Saville, England
Archangel, 28th March, 17—
How slowly the time passes here, encompassed as I am
by frost and snow! Yet a second step is taken towards my
enterprise. I have hired a vessel and am occupied in
collecting my sailors; those whom I have already engaged
appear to be men on whom I can depend and are certainly
possessed of dauntless courage.
But I have one want which I have never yet been able
to satisfy, and the absence of the object of which I now
feel as a most severe evil. I have no friend, Margaret: when
I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be
none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by
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disappointment, no one will endeavour to sustain me in
dejection. I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true;
but that is a poor medium for the communication of
feeling. I desire the company of a man who could
sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.
You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly
feel the want of a friend. I have no one near me, gentle
yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a
capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve
or amend my plans. How would such a friend repair the
faults of your poor brother! I am too ardent in execution
and too impatient of difficulties. But it is a still greater evil
to me that I am self-educated: for the first fourteen years
of my life I ran wild on a common and read nothing but
our Uncle Thomas’ books of voyages. At that age I
became acquainted with the celebrated poets of our own
country; but it was only when it had ceased to be in my
power to derive its most important benefits from such a
conviction that I perceived the necessity of becoming
acquainted with more languages than that of my native
country. Now I am twenty-eight and am in reality more
illiterate than many schoolboys of fifteen. It is true that I
have thought more and that my daydreams are more
extended and magnificent, but they want (as the painters
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call it) *keeping*; and I greatly need a friend who would
have sense enough not to despise me as romantic, and
affection enough for me to endeavour to regulate my
mind.
Well, these are useless complaints; I shall certainly find
no friend on the wide ocean, nor even here in Archangel,
among merchants and seamen. Yet some feelings, unallied
to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged
bosoms. My lieutenant, for instance, is a man of wonderful
courage and enterprise; he is madly desirous of glory, or
rather, to word my phrase more characteristically, of
advancement in his profession. He is an Englishman, and
in the midst of national and professional prejudices,
unsoftened by cultivation, retains some of the noblest
endowments of humanity. I first became acquainted with
him on board a whale vessel; finding that he was
unemployed in this city, I easily engaged him to assist in
my enterprise.
The master is a person of an excellent disposition and is
remarkable in the ship for his gentleness and the mildness
of his discipline. This circumstance, added to his well-
known integrity and dauntless courage, made me very
desirous to engage him. A youth passed in solitude, my
best years spent under your gentle and feminine fosterage,
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has so refined the groundwork of my character that I
cannot overcome an intense distaste to the usual brutality
exercised on board ship: I have never believed it to be
necessary, and when I heard of a mariner equally noted for
his kindliness of heart and the respect and obedience paid
to him by his crew, I felt myself peculiarly fortunate in
being able to secure his services. I heard of him first in
rather a romantic manner, from a lady who owes to him
the happiness of her life. This, briefly, is his story. Some
years ago he loved a young Russian lady of moderate
fortune, and having amassed a considerable sum in prize-
money, the father of the girl consented to the match. He
saw his mistress once before the destined ceremony; but
she was bathed in tears, and throwing herself at his feet,
entreated him to spare her, confessing at the same time
that she loved another, but that he was poor, and that her
father would never consent to the union. My generous
friend reassured the suppliant, and on being informed of
the name of her lover, instantly abandoned his pursuit. He
had already bought a farm with his money, on which he
had designed to pass the remainder of his life; but he
bestowed the whole on his rival, together with the
remains of his prize-money to purchase stock, and then
himself solicited the young woman’s father to consent to
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her marriage with her lover. But the old man decidedly
refused, thinking himself bound in honour to my friend,
who, when he found the father inexorable, quitted his
country, nor returned until he heard that his former
mistress was married according to her inclinations. ‘What a
noble fellow!’ you will exclaim. He is so; but then he is
wholly uneducated: he is as silent as a Turk, and a kind of
ignorant carelessness attends him, which, while it renders
his conduct the more astonishing, detracts from the
interest and sympathy which otherwise he would
command.
Yet do not suppose, because I complain a little or
because I can conceive a consolation for my toils which I
may never know, that I am wavering in my resolutions.
Those are as fixed as fate, and my voyage is only now
delayed until the weather shall permit my embarkation.
The winter has been dreadfully severe, but the spring
promises well, and it is considered as a remarkably early
season, so that perhaps I may sail sooner than I expected. I
shall do nothing rashly: you know me sufficiently to
confide in my prudence and considerateness whenever the
safety of others is committed to my care.
I cannot describe to you my sensations on the near
prospect of my undertaking. It is impossible to
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communicate to you a conception of the trembling
sensation, half pleasurable and half fearful, with which I
am preparing to depart. I am going to unexplored regions,
to ‘the land of mist and snow,’ but I shall kill no albatross;
therefore do not be alarmed for my safety or if I should
come back to you as worn and woeful as the ‘Ancient
Mariner.’ You will smile at my allusion, but I will disclose
a secret. I have often attributed my attachment to, my
passionate enthusiasm for, the dangerous mysteries of
ocean to that production of the most imaginative of
modern poets. There is something at work in my soul
which I do not understand. I am practically industrious—
painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and
labour—but besides this there is a love for the marvellous,
a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects,
which hurries me out of the common pathways of men,
even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to
explore.
But to return to dearer considerations. Shall I meet you
again, after having traversed immense seas, and returned
by the most southern cape of Africa or America? I dare
not expect such success, yet I cannot bear to look on the
reverse of the picture. Continue for the present to write to
me by every opportunity: I may receive your letters on
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some occasions when I need them most to support my
spirits. I love you very tenderly. Remember me with
affection, should you never hear from me again.
Your affectionate brother,
Robert Walton
Letter 3
To Mrs. Saville, England
July 7th, 17—
My dear Sister,
I write a few lines in haste to say that I am safe— and
well advanced on my voyage. This letter will reach
England by a merchantman now on its homeward voyage
from Archangel; more fortunate than I, who may not see
my native land, perhaps, for many years. I am, however, in
good spirits: my men are bold and apparently firm of
purpose, nor do the floating sheets of ice that continually
pass us, indicating the dangers of the region towards which
we are advancing, appear to dismay them. We have
already reached a very high latitude; but it is the height of
summer, and although not so warm as in England, the
southern gales, which blow us speedily towards those
shores which I so ardently desire to attain, breathe a
degree of renovating warmth which I had not expected.
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No incidents have hitherto befallen us that would make
a figure in a letter. One or two stiff gales and the springing
of a leak are accidents which experienced navigators
scarcely remember to record, and I shall be well content if
nothing worse happen to us during our voyage.
Adieu, my dear Margaret. Be assured that for my own
sake, as well as yours, I will not rashly encounter danger. I
will be cool, persevering, and prudent.
But success *shall* crown my endeavours. Wherefore
not? Thus far I have gone, tracing a secure way over the
pathless seas, the very stars themselves being witnesses and
testimonies of my triumph. Why not still proceed over the
untamed yet obedient element? What can stop the
determined heart and resolved will of man?
My swelling heart involuntarily pours itself out thus.
But I must finish. Heaven bless my beloved sister!
R.W.
Letter 4
To Mrs. Saville, England
August 5th, 17—
So strange an accident has happened to us that I cannot
forbear recording it, although it is very probable that you
will see me before these papers can come into your
possession.
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Last Monday (July 31st) we were nearly surrounded by
ice, which closed in the ship on all sides, scarcely leaving
her the sea-room in which she floated. Our situation was
somewhat dangerous, especially as we were compassed
round by a very thick fog. We accordingly lay to, hoping
that some change would take place in the atmosphere and
weather.
About two o’clock the mist cleared away, and we
beheld, stretched out in every direction, vast and irregular
plains of ice, which seemed to have no end. Some of my
comrades groaned, and my own mind began to grow
watchful with anxious thoughts, when a strange sight
suddenly attracted our attention and diverted our
solicitude from our own situation. We perceived a low
carriage, fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass on
towards the north, at the distance of half a mile; a being
which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic
stature, sat in the sledge and guided the dogs. We watched
the rapid progress of the traveller with our telescopes until
he was lost among the distant inequalities of the ice.
This appearance excited our unqualified wonder. We
were, as we believed, many hundred miles from any land;
but this apparition seemed to denote that it was not, in
reality, so distant as we had supposed. Shut in, however,
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by ice, it was impossible to follow his track, which we had
observed with the greatest attention.
About two hours after this occurrence we heard the
ground sea, and before night the ice broke and freed our
ship. We, however, lay to until the morning, fearing to
encounter in the dark those large loose masses which float
about after the breaking up of the ice. I profited of this
time to rest for a few hours.
In the morning, however, as soon as it was light, I went
upon deck and found all the sailors busy on one side of the
vessel, apparently talking to someone in the sea. It was, in
fact, a sledge, like that we had seen before, which had
drifted towards us in the night on a large fragment of ice.
Only one dog remained alive; but there was a human
being within it whom the sailors were persuading to enter
the vessel. He was not, as the other traveller seemed to be,
a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but a
European. When I appeared on deck the master said,
‘Here is our captain, and he will not allow you to perish
on the open sea.’
On perceiving me, the stranger addressed me in
English, although with a foreign accent. ‘Before I come on
board your vessel,’ said he, ‘will you have the kindness to
inform me whither you are bound?’
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You may conceive my astonishment on hearing such a
question addressed to me from a man on the brink of
destruction and to whom I should have supposed that my
vessel would have been a resource which he would not
have exchanged for the most precious wealth the earth can
afford. I replied, however, that we were on a voyage of
discovery towards the northern pole.
Upon hearing this he appeared satisfied and consented
to come on board. Good God! Margaret, if you had seen
the man who thus capitulated for his safety, your surprise
would have been boundless. His limbs were nearly frozen,
and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering.
I never saw a man in so wretched a condition. We
attempted to carry him into the cabin, but as soon as he
had quitted the fresh air he fainted. We accordingly
brought him back to the deck and restored him to
animation by rubbing him with brandy and forcing him to
swallow a small quantity. As soon as he showed signs of
life we wrapped him up in blankets and placed him near
the chimney of the kitchen stove. By slow degrees he
recovered and ate a little soup, which restored him
wonderfully.
Two days passed in this manner before he was able to
speak, and I often feared that his sufferings had deprived
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him of understanding. When he had in some measure
recovered, I removed him to my own cabin and attended
on him as much as my duty would permit. I never saw a
more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an
expression of wildness, and even madness, but there are
moments when, if anyone performs an act of kindness
towards him or does him the most trifling service, his
whole countenance is lighted up, as it were, with a beam
of benevolence and sweetness that I never saw equalled.
But he is generally melancholy and despairing, and
sometimes he gnashes his teeth, as if impatient of the
weight of woes that oppresses him.
When my guest was a little recovered I had great
trouble to keep off the men, who wished to ask him a
thousand questions; but I would not allow him to be
tormented by their idle curiosity, in a state of body and
mind whose restoration evidently depended upon entire
repose. Once, however, the lieutenant asked why he had
come so far upon the ice in so strange a vehicle.
His countenance instantly assumed an aspect of the
deepest gloom, and he replied, ‘To seek one who fled
from me.’
‘And did the man whom you pursued travel in the
same fashion?’
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‘Yes.’
‘Then I fancy we have seen him, for the day before we
picked you up we saw some dogs drawing a sledge, with a
man in it, across the ice.’
This aroused the stranger’s attention, and he asked a
multitude of questions concerning the route which the
demon, as he called him, had pursued. Soon after, when
he was alone with me, he said, ‘I have, doubtless, excited
your curiosity, as well as that of these good people; but
you are too considerate to make inquiries.’
‘Certainly; it would indeed be very impertinent and
inhuman of me to trouble you with any inquisitiveness of
mine.’
‘And yet you rescued me from a strange and perilous
situation; you have benevolently restored me to life.’
Soon after this he inquired if I thought that the
breaking up of the ice had destroyed the other sledge. I
replied that I could not answer with any degree of
certainty, for the ice had not broken until near midnight,
and the traveller might have arrived at a place of safety
before that time; but of this I could not judge.
From this time a new spirit of life animated the
decaying frame of the stranger. He manifested the greatest
eagerness to be upon deck to watch for the sledge which
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had before appeared; but I have persuaded him to remain
in the cabin, for he is far too weak to sustain the rawness
of the atmosphere. I have promised that someone should
watch for him and give him instant notice if any new
object should appear in sight.
Such is my journal of what relates to this strange
occurrence up to the present day. The stranger has
gradually improved in health but is very silent and appears
uneasy when anyone except myself enters his cabin. Yet
his manners are so conciliating and gentle that the sailors
are all interested in him, although they have had very little
communication with him. For my own part, I begin to
love him as a brother, and his constant and deep grief fills
me with sympathy and compassion. He must have been a
noble creature in his better days, being even now in wreck
so attractive and amiable.
I said in one of my letters, my dear Margaret, that I
should find no friend on the wide ocean; yet I have found
a man who, before his spirit had been broken by misery, I
should have been happy to have possessed as the brother
of my heart.
I shall continue my journal concerning the stranger at
intervals, should I have any fresh incidents to record.
August 13th, 17—
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My affection for my guest increases every day. He
excites at once my admiration and my pity to an
astonishing degree. How can I see so noble a creature
destroyed by misery without feeling the most poignant
grief? He is so gentle, yet so wise; his mind is so
cultivated, and when he speaks, although his words are
culled with the choicest art, yet they flow with rapidity
and unparalleled eloquence.
He is now much recovered from his illness and is
continually on the deck, apparently watching for the
sledge that preceded his own. Yet, although unhappy, he
is not so utterly occupied by his own misery but that he
interests himself deeply in the projects of others. He has
frequently conversed with me on mine, which I have
communicated to him without disguise. He entered
attentively into all my arguments in favour of my eventual
success and into every minute detail of the measures I had
taken to secure it. I was easily led by the sympathy which
he evinced to use the language of my heart, to give
utterance to the burning ardour of my soul, and to say,
with all the fervour that warmed me, how gladly I would
sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the
furtherance of my enterprise. One man’s life or death were
but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the
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knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should
acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.
As I spoke, a dark gloom spread over my listener’s
countenance. At first I perceived that he tried to suppress
his emotion; he placed his hands before his eyes, and my
voice quivered and failed me as I beheld tears trickle fast
from between his fingers; a groan burst from his heaving
breast. I paused; at length he spoke, in broken accents:
‘Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you
drunk also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me; let me
reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips!’
Such words, you may imagine, strongly excited my
curiosity; but the paroxysm of grief that had seized the
stranger overcame his weakened powers, and many hours
of repose and tranquil conversation were necessary to
restore his composure.
Having conquered the violence of his feelings, he
appeared to despise himself for being the slave of passion;
and quelling the dark tyranny of despair, he led me again
to converse concerning myself personally. He asked me
the history of my earlier years. The tale was quickly told,
but it awakened various trains of reflection. I spoke of my
desire of finding a friend, of my thirst for a more intimate
sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever fallen to my
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lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of
little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing.
‘I agree with you,’ replied the stranger; ‘we are
unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser,
better, dearer than ourselves— such a friend ought to be—
do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty
natures. I once had a friend, the most noble of human
creatures, and am entitled, therefore, to judge respecting
friendship. You have hope, and the world before you, and
have no cause for despair. But I—I have lost everything
and cannot begin life anew.’
As he said this his countenance became expressive of a
calm, settled grief that touched me to the heart. But he
was silent and presently retired to his cabin.
Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more
deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky,
the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful
regions seem still to have the power of elevating his soul
from earth. Such a man has a double existence: he may
suffer misery and be overwhelmed by disappointments, yet
when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial
spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no
grief or folly ventures.
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Will you smile at the enthusiasm I express concerning
this divine wanderer? You would not if you saw him. You
have been tutored and refined by books and retirement
from the world, and you are therefore somewhat
fastidious; but this only renders you the more fit to
appreciate the extraordinary merits of this wonderful man.
Sometimes I have endeavoured to discover what quality it
is which he possesses that elevates him so immeasurably
above any other person I ever knew. I believe it to be an
intuitive discernment, a quick but never-failing power of
judgment, a penetration into the causes of things,
unequalled for clearness and precision; add to this a facility
of expression and a voice whose varied intonations are
soul-subduing music.
August 19, 17—
Yesterday the stranger said to me, ‘You may easily
perceive, Captain Walton, that I have suffered great and
unparalleled misfortunes. I had determined at one time
that the memory of these evils should die with me, but
you have won me to alter my determination. You seek for
knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope
that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent
to sting you, as mine has been. I do not know that the
relation of my disasters will be useful to you; yet, when I
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reflect that you are pursuing the same course, exposing
yourself to the same dangers which have rendered me
what I am, I imagine that you may deduce an apt moral
from my tale, one that may direct you if you succeed in
your undertaking and console you in case of failure.
Prepare to hear of occurrences which are usually deemed
marvellous. Were we among the tamer scenes of nature I
might fear to encounter your unbelief, perhaps your
ridicule; but many things will appear possible in these wild
and mysterious regions which would provoke the laughter
of those unacquainted with the ever-varied powers of
nature; nor can I doubt but that my tale conveys in its
series internal evidence of the truth of the events of which
it is composed.’
You may easily imagine that I was much gratified by
the offered communication, yet I could not endure that he
should renew his grief by a recital of his misfortunes. I felt
the greatest eagerness to hear the promised narrative,
partly from curiosity and partly from a strong desire to
ameliorate his fate if it were in my power. I expressed
these feelings in my answer.
‘I thank you,’ he replied, ‘for your sympathy, but it is
useless; my fate is nearly fulfilled. I wait but for one event,
and then I shall repose in peace. I understand your
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feeling,’ continued he, perceiving that I wished to
interrupt him; ‘but you are mistaken, my friend, if thus
you will allow me to name you; nothing can alter my
destiny; listen to my history, and you will perceive how
irrevocably it is determined.’
He then told me that he would commence his narrative
the next day when I should be at leisure. This promise
drew from me the warmest thanks. I have resolved every
night, when I am not imperatively occupied by my duties,
to record, as nearly as possible in his own words, what he
has related during the day. If I should be engaged, I will at
least make notes. This manuscript will doubtless afford you
the greatest pleasure; but to me, who know him and who
hear it from his own lips—with what interest and
sympathy shall I read it in some future day! Even now, as I
commence my task, his full-toned voice swells in my ears;
his lustrous eyes dwell on me with all their melancholy
sweetness; I see his thin hand raised in animation, while
the lineaments of his face are irradiated by the soul within.
Strange and harrowing must be his story, frightful the
storm which embraced the gallant vessel on its course and
wrecked it—thus!
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Chapter 1
I am by birth a Genevese, and my family is one of the
most distinguished of that republic. My ancestors had been
for many years counsellors and syndics, and my father had
filled several public situations with honour and reputation.
He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity
and indefatigable attention to public business. He passed
his younger days perpetually occupied by the affairs of his
country; a variety of circumstances had prevented his
marrying early, nor was it until the decline of life that he
became a husband and the father of a family.
As the circumstances of his marriage illustrate his
character, I cannot refrain from relating them. One of his
most intimate friends was a merchant who, from a
flourishing state, fell, through numerous mischances, into
poverty. This man, whose name was Beaufort, was of a
proud and unbending disposition and could not bear to
live in poverty and oblivion in the same country where he
had formerly been distinguished for his rank and
magnificence. Having paid his debts, therefore, in the
most honourable manner, he retreated with his daughter
to the town of Lucerne, where he lived unknown and in
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wretchedness. My father loved Beaufort with the truest
friendship and was deeply grieved by his retreat in these
unfortunate circumstances. He bitterly deplored the false
pride which led his friend to a conduct so little worthy of
the affection that united them. He lost no time in
endeavouring to seek him out, with the hope of
persuading him to begin the world again through his
credit and assistance.
Beaufort had taken effectual measures to conceal
himself, and it was ten months before my father
discovered his abode. Overjoyed at this discovery, he
hastened to the house, which was situated in a mean street
near the Reuss. But when he entered, misery and despair
alone welcomed him. Beaufort had saved but a very small
sum of money from the wreck of his fortunes, but it was
sufficient to provide him with sustenance for some
months, and in the meantime he hoped to procure some
respectable employment in a merchant’s house. The
interval was, consequently, spent in inaction; his grief only
became more deep and rankling when he had leisure for
reflection, and at length it took so fast hold of his mind
that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness,
incapable of any exertion.
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His daughter attended him with the greatest tenderness,
but she saw with despair that their little fund was rapidly
decreasing and that there was no other prospect of
support. But Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind of an
uncommon mould, and her courage rose to support her in
her adversity. She procured plain work; she plaited straw
and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely
sufficient to support life.
Several months passed in this manner. Her father grew
worse; her time was more entirely occupied in attending
him; her means of subsistence decreased; and in the tenth
month her father died in her arms, leaving her an orphan
and a beggar. This last blow overcame her, and she knelt
by Beaufort’s coffin weeping bitterly, when my father
entered the chamber. He came like a protecting spirit to
the poor girl, who committed herself to his care; and after
the interment of his friend he conducted her to Geneva
and placed her under the protection of a relation. Two
years after this event Caroline became his wife.
There was a considerable difference between the ages
of my parents, but this circumstance seemed to unite them
only closer in bonds of devoted affection. There was a
sense of justice in my father’s upright mind which
rendered it necessary that he should approve highly to love
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strongly. Perhaps during former years he had suffered from
the late-discovered unworthiness of one beloved and so
was disposed to set a greater value on tried worth. There
was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to
my mother, differing wholly from the doting fondness of
age, for it was inspired by reverence for her virtues and a
desire to be the means of, in some degree, recompensing
her for the sorrows she had endured, but which gave
inexpressible grace to his behaviour to her. Everything was
made to yield to her wishes and her convenience. He
strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the
gardener, from every rougher wind and to surround her
with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in
her soft and benevolent mind. Her health, and even the
tranquillity of her hitherto constant spirit, had been shaken
by what she had gone through. During the two years that
had elapsed previous to their marriage my father had
gradually relinquished all his public functions; and
immediately after their union they sought the pleasant
climate of Italy, and the change of scene and interest
attendant on a tour through that land of wonders, as a
restorative for her weakened frame.
From Italy they visited Germany and France. I, their
eldest child, was born at Naples, and as an infant
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accompanied them in their rambles. I remained for several
years their only child. Much as they were attached to each
other, they seemed to draw inexhaustible stores of
affection from a very mine of love to bestow them upon
me. My mother’s tender caresses and my father’s smile of
benevolent pleasure while regarding me are my first
recollections. I was their plaything and their idol, and
something better—their child, the innocent and helpless
creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up
to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to
direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled
their duties towards me. With this deep consciousness of
what they owed towards the being to which they had
given life, added to the active spirit of tenderness that
animated both, it may be imagined that while during
every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience,
of charity, and of self-control, I was so guided by a silken
cord that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to me.
For a long time I was their only care. My mother had
much desired to have a daughter, but I continued their
single offspring. When I was about five years old, while
making an excursion beyond the frontiers of Italy, they
passed a week on the shores of the Lake of Como. Their
benevolent disposition often made them enter the cottages
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of the poor. This, to my mother, was more than a duty; it
was a necessity, a passion—remembering what she had
suffered, and how she had been relieved—for her to act in
her turn the guardian angel to the afflicted. During one of
their walks a poor cot in the foldings of a vale attracted
their notice as being singularly disconsolate, while the
number of half-clothed children gathered about it spoke of
penury in its worst shape. One day, when my father had
gone by himself to Milan, my mother, accompanied by
me, visited this abode. She found a peasant and his wife,
hard working, bent down by care and labour, distributing
a scanty meal to five hungry babes. Among these there was
one which attracted my mother far above all the rest. She
appeared of a different stock. The four others were dark-
eyed, hardy little vagrants; this child was thin and very fair.
Her hair was the brightest living gold, and despite the
poverty of her clothing, seemed to set a crown of
distinction on her head. Her brow was clear and ample,
her blue eyes cloudless, and her lips and the moulding of
her face so expressive of sensibility and sweetness that
none could behold her without looking on her as of a
distinct species, a being heaven-sent, and bearing a celestial
stamp in all her features.
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The peasant woman, perceiving that my mother fixed
eyes of wonder and admiration on this lovely girl, eagerly
communicated her history. She was not her child, but the
daughter of a Milanese nobleman. Her mother was a
German and had died on giving her birth. The infant had
been placed with these good people to nurse: they were
better off then. They had not been long married, and their
eldest child was but just born. The father of their charge
was one of those Italians nursed in the memory of the
antique glory of Italy—one among the *schiavi ognor
frementi*, who exerted himself to obtain the liberty of his
country. He became the victim of its weakness. Whether
he had died or still lingered in the dungeons of Austria was
not known. His property was confiscated; his child
became an orphan and a beggar. She continued with her
foster parents and bloomed in their rude abode, fairer than
a garden rose among dark-leaved brambles.
When my father returned from Milan, he found
playing with me in the hall of our villa a child fairer than
pictured cherub— a creature who seemed to shed radiance
from her looks and whose form and motions were lighter
than the chamois of the hills. The apparition was soon
explained. With his permission my mother prevailed on
her rustic guardians to yield their charge to her. They
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were fond of the sweet orphan. Her presence had seemed
a blessing to them, but it would be unfair to her to keep
her in poverty and want when Providence afforded her
such powerful protection. They consulted their village
priest, and the result was that Elizabeth Lavenza became
the inmate of my parents’ house— my more than sister—
the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations
and my pleasures.
Everyone loved Elizabeth. The passionate and almost
reverential attachment with which all regarded her
became, while I shared it, my pride and my delight. On
the evening previous to her being brought to my home,
my mother had said playfully, ‘I have a pretty present for
my Victor— tomorrow he shall have it.’ And when, on
the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her
promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her
words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine
to protect, love, and cherish. All praises bestowed on her I
received as made to a possession of my own. We called
each other familiarly by the name of cousin. No word, no
expression could body forth the kind of relation in which
she stood to me—my more than sister, since till death she
was to be mine only.
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Chapter 2
We were brought up together; there was not quite a
year difference in our ages. I need not say that we were
strangers to any species of disunion or dispute. Harmony
was the soul of our companionship, and the diversity and
contrast that subsisted in our characters drew us nearer
together. Elizabeth was of a calmer and more concentrated
disposition; but, with all my ardour, I was capable of a
more intense application and was more deeply smitten
with the thirst for knowledge. She busied herself with
following the aerial creations of the poets; and in the
majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss
home—the sublime shapes of the mountains, the changes
of the seasons, tempest and calm, the silence of winter, and
the life and turbulence of our Alpine summers—she found
ample scope for admiration and delight. While my
companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit
the magnificent appearances of things, I delighted in
investigating their causes. The world was to me a secret
which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to
learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as
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they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest
sensations I can remember.
On the birth of a second son, my junior by seven years,
my parents gave up entirely their wandering life and fixed
themselves in their native country. We possessed a house
in Geneva, and a campagne on Belrive, the eastern shore
of the lake, at the distance of rather more than a league
from the city. We resided principally in the latter, and the
lives of my parents were passed in considerable seclusion.
It was my temper to avoid a crowd and to attach myself
fervently to a few. I was indifferent, therefore, to my
school-fellows in general; but I united myself in the bonds
of the closest friendship to one among them. Henry
Clerval was the son of a merchant of Geneva. He was a
boy of singular talent and fancy. He loved enterprise,
hardship, and even danger for its own sake. He was deeply
read in books of chivalry and romance. He composed
heroic songs and began to write many a tale of
enchantment and knightly adventure. He tried to make us
act plays and to enter into masquerades, in which the
characters were drawn from the heroes of Roncesvalles, of
the Round Table of King Arthur, and the chivalrous train
who shed their blood to redeem the holy sepulchre from
the hands of the infidels.
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No human being could have passed a happier
childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the
very spirit of kindness and indulgence. We felt that they
were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their
caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights
which we enjoyed. When I mingled with other families I
distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was,
and gratitude assisted the development of filial love.
My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions
vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were
turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire
to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately. I
confess that neither the structure of languages, nor the
code of governments, nor the politics of various states
possessed attractions for me. It was the secrets of heaven
and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the
outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature
and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my
inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its
highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.
Meanwhile Clerval occupied himself, so to speak, with
the moral relations of things. The busy stage of life, the
virtues of heroes, and the actions of men were his theme;
and his hope and his dream was to become one among
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those whose names are recorded in story as the gallant and
adventurous benefactors of our species. The saintly soul of
Elizabeth shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our
peaceful home. Her sympathy was ours; her smile, her soft
voice, the sweet glance of her celestial eyes, were ever
there to bless and animate us. She was the living spirit of
love to soften and attract; I might have become sullen in
my study, through the ardour of my nature, but that she
was there to subdue me to a semblance of her own
gentleness. And Clerval—could aught ill entrench on the
noble spirit of Clerval? Yet he might not have been so
perfectly humane, so thoughtful in his generosity, so full
of kindness and tenderness amidst his passion for
adventurous exploit, had she not unfolded to him the real
loveliness of beneficence and made the doing good the
end and aim of his soaring ambition.
I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections
of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind and
changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into
gloomy and narrow reflections upon self. Besides, in
drawing the picture of my early days, I also record those
events which led, by insensible steps, to my after tale of
misery, for when I would account to myself for the birth
of that passion which afterward ruled my destiny I find it
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arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost
forgotten sources; but, swelling as it proceeded, it became
the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my
hopes and joys. Natural philosophy is the genius that has
regulated my fate; I desire, therefore, in this narration, to
state those facts which led to my predilection for that
science. When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a
party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon; the
inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day
confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a
volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it
with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate
and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this
feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn
upon my mind, and bounding with joy, I communicated
my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at
the title page of my book and said, ‘Ah! Cornelius
Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon
this; it is sad trash.’
If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains
to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been
entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had
been introduced which possessed much greater powers
than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were
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chimerical, while those of the former were real and
practical, under such circumstances I should certainly have
thrown Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination,
warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my
former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas
would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my
ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my
volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted
with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest
avidity. When I returned home my first care was to
procure the whole works of this author, and afterwards of
Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read and studied the
wild fancies of these writers with delight; they appeared to
me treasures known to few besides myself. I have
described myself as always having been imbued with a
fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite
of the intense labour and wonderful discoveries of modern
philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented
and unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed
that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great
and unexplored ocean of truth. Those of his successors in
each branch of natural philosophy with whom I was
acquainted appeared even to my boy’s apprehensions as
tyros engaged in the same pursuit.
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The untaught peasant beheld the elements around him
and was acquainted with their practical uses. The most
learned philosopher knew little more. He had partially
unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments
were still a wonder and a mystery. He might dissect,
anatomize, and give names; but, not to speak of a final
cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were
utterly unknown to him. I had gazed upon the
fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human
beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and
ignorantly I had repined.
But here were books, and here were men who had
penetrated deeper and knew more. I took their word for
all that they averred, and I became their disciple. It may
appear strange that such should arise in the eighteenth
century; but while I followed the routine of education in
the schools of Geneva, I was, to a great degree, self-taught
with regard to my favourite studies. My father was not
scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child’s blindness,
added to a student’s thirst for knowledge. Under the
guidance of my new preceptors I entered with the greatest
diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the
elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided
attention. Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory
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would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from
the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but
a violent death! Nor were these my only visions. The
raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded
by my favourite authors, the fulfillment of which I most
eagerly sought; and if my incantations were always
unsuccessful, I attributed the failure rather to my own
inexperience and mistake than to a want of skill or fidelity
in my instructors. And thus for a time I was occupied by
exploded systems, mingling, like an unadept, a thousand
contradictory theories and floundering desperately in a
very slough of multifarious knowledge, guided by an
ardent imagination and childish reasoning, till an accident
again changed the current of my ideas. When I was about
fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive,
when we witnessed a most violent and terrible
thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of
Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness
from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while
the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and
delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a
stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which
stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as
the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and
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nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it
the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a
singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but
entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld
anything so utterly destroyed.
Before this I was not unacquainted with the more
obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of
great research in natural philosophy was with us, and
excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation
of a theory which he had formed on the subject of
electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and
astonishing to me. All that he said threw greatly into the
shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus,
the lords of my imagination; but by some fatality the
overthrow of these men disinclined me to pursue my
accustomed studies. It seemed to me as if nothing would
or could ever be known. All that had so long engaged my
attention suddenly grew despicable. By one of those
caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to
in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations,
set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed
and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain
for a would-be science which could never even step
within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of
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mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches
of study appertaining to that science as being built upon
secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.
Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by such
slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin. When
I look back, it seems to me as if this almost miraculous
change of inclination and will was the immediate
suggestion of the guardian angel of my life—the last effort
made by the spirit of preservation to avert the storm that
was even then hanging in the stars and ready to envelop
me. Her victory was announced by an unusual tranquillity
and gladness of soul which followed the relinquishing of
my ancient and latterly tormenting studies. It was thus that
I was to be taught to associate evil with their prosecution,
happiness with their disregard.
It was a strong effort of the spirit of good, but it was
ineffectual. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable
laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.
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Chapter 3
When I had attained the age of seventeen my parents
resolved that I should become a student at the university
of Ingolstadt. I had hitherto attended the schools of
Geneva, but my father thought it necessary for the
completion of my education that I should be made
acquainted with other customs than those of my native
country. My departure was therefore fixed at an early date,
but before the day resolved upon could arrive, the first
misfortune of my life occurred—an omen, as it were, of
my future misery. Elizabeth had caught the scarlet fever;
her illness was severe, and she was in the greatest danger.
During her illness many arguments had been urged to
persuade my mother to refrain from attending upon her.
She had at first yielded to our entreaties, but when she
heard that the life of her favourite was menaced, she could
no longer control her anxiety. She attended her sickbed;
her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of
the distemper—Elizabeth was saved, but the consequences
of this imprudence were fatal to her preserver. On the
third day my mother sickened; her fever was accompanied
by the most alarming symptoms, and the looks of her
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medical attendants prognosticated the worst event. On her
deathbed the fortitude and benignity of this best of
women did not desert her. She joined the hands of
Elizabeth and myself. ‘My children,’ she said, ‘my firmest
hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of
your union. This expectation will now be the consolation
of your father. Elizabeth, my love, you must supply my
place to my younger children. Alas! I regret that I am
taken from you; and, happy and beloved as I have been, is
it not hard to quit you all? But these are not thoughts
befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully
to death and will indulge a hope of meeting you in
another world.’
She died calmly, and her countenance expressed
affection even in death. I need not describe the feelings of
those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable
evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the
despair that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long
before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw
every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our
own can have departed forever—that the brightness of a
beloved eye can have been extinguished and the sound of
a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed,
never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the
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first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of
the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences. Yet
from whom has not that rude hand rent away some dear
connection? And why should I describe a sorrow which all
have felt, and must feel? The time at length arrives when
grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity; and the smile
that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a
sacrilege, is not banished. My mother was dead, but we
had still duties which we ought to perform; we must
continue our course with the rest and learn to think
ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler
has not seized. My departure for Ingolstadt, which had
been deferred by these events, was now again determined
upon. I obtained from my father a respite of some weeks.
It appeared to me sacrilege so soon to leave the repose,
akin to death, of the house of mourning and to rush into
the thick of life. I was new to sorrow, but it did not the
less alarm me. I was unwilling to quit the sight of those
that remained to me, and above all, I desired to see my
sweet Elizabeth in some degree consoled.
She indeed veiled her grief and strove to act the
comforter to us all. She looked steadily on life and
assumed its duties with courage and zeal. She devoted
herself to those whom she had been taught to call her
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uncle and cousins. Never was she so enchanting as at this
time, when she recalled the sunshine of her smiles and
spent them upon us. She forgot even her own regret in
her endeavours to make us forget.
The day of my departure at length arrived. Clerval
spent the last evening with us. He had endeavoured to
persuade his father to permit him to accompany me and to
become my fellow student, but in vain. His father was a
narrow-minded trader and saw idleness and ruin in the
aspirations and ambition of his son. Henry deeply felt the
misfortune of being debarred from a liberal education. He
said little, but when he spoke I read in his kindling eye
and in his animated glance a restrained but firm resolve
not to be chained to the miserable details of commerce.
We sat late. We could not tear ourselves away from
each other nor persuade ourselves to say the word
‘Farewell!’ It was said, and we retired under the pretence
of seeking repose, each fancying that the other was
deceived; but when at morning’s dawn I descended to the
carriage which was to convey me away, they were all
there—my father again to bless me, Clerval to press my
hand once more, my Elizabeth to renew her entreaties that
I would write often and to bestow the last feminine
attentions on her playmate and friend.
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I threw myself into the chaise that was to convey me
away and indulged in the most melancholy reflections. I,
who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions,
continually engaged in endeavouring to bestow mutual
pleasure—I was now alone. In the university whither I
was going I must form my own friends and be my own
protector. My life had hitherto been remarkably secluded
and domestic, and this had given me invincible
repugnance to new countenances. I loved my brothers,
Elizabeth, and Clerval; these were ‘old familiar faces,’ but I
believed myself totally unfitted for the company of
strangers. Such were my reflections as I commenced my
journey; but as I proceeded, my spirits and hopes rose. I
ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge. I had often,
when at home, thought it hard to remain during my
youth cooped up in one place and had longed to enter the
world and take my station among other human beings.
Now my desires were complied with, and it would,
indeed, have been folly to repent.
I had sufficient leisure for these and many other
reflections during my journey to Ingolstadt, which was
long and fatiguing. At length the high white steeple of the
town met my eyes. I alighted and was conducted to my
solitary apartment to spend the evening as I pleased.
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The next morning I delivered my letters of
introduction and paid a visit to some of the principal
professors. Chance—or rather the evil influence, the Angel
of Destruction, which asserted omnipotent sway over me
from the moment I turned my reluctant steps from my
father’s door—led me first to M. Krempe, professor of
natural philosophy. He was an uncouth man, but deeply
imbued in the secrets of his science. He asked me several
questions concerning my progress in the different branches
of science appertaining to natural philosophy. I replied
carelessly, and partly in contempt, mentioned the names of
my alchemists as the principal authors I had studied. The
professor stared. ‘Have you,’ he said, ‘really spent your
time in studying such nonsense?’
I replied in the affirmative. ‘Every minute,’ continued
M. Krempe with warmth, ‘every instant that you have
wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost. You
have burdened your memory with exploded systems and
useless names. Good God! In what desert land have you
lived, where no one was kind enough to inform you that
these fancies which you have so greedily imbibed are a
thousand years old and as musty as they are ancient? I little
expected, in this enlightened and scientific age, to find a
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disciple of Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. My dear sir,
you must begin your studies entirely anew.’
So saying, he stepped aside and wrote down a list of
several books treating of natural philosophy which he
desired me to procure, and dismissed me after mentioning
that in the beginning of the following week he intended
to commence a course of lectures upon natural philosophy
in its general relations, and that M. Waldman, a fellow
professor, would lecture upon chemistry the alternate days
that he omitted.
I returned home not disappointed, for I have said that I
had long considered those authors useless whom the
professor reprobated; but I returned not at all the more
inclined to recur to these studies in any shape. M. Krempe
was a little squat man with a gruff voice and a repulsive
countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me
in favour of his pursuits. In rather a too philosophical and
connected a strain, perhaps, I have given an account of the
conclusions I had come to concerning them in my early
years. As a child I had not been content with the results
promised by the modern professors of natural science.
With a confusion of ideas only to be accounted for by my
extreme youth and my want of a guide on such matters, I
had retrod the steps of knowledge along the paths of time
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and exchanged the discoveries of recent inquirers for the
dreams of forgotten alchemists. Besides, I had a contempt
for the uses of modern natural philosophy. It was very
different when the masters of the science sought
immortality and power; such views, although futile, were
grand; but now the scene was changed. The ambition of
the inquirer seemed to limit itself to the annihilation of
those visions on which my interest in science was chiefly
founded. I was required to exchange chimeras of
boundless grandeur for realities of little worth.
Such were my reflections during the first two or three
days of my residence at Ingolstadt, which were chiefly
spent in becoming acquainted with the localities and the
principal residents in my new abode. But as the ensuing
week commenced, I thought of the information which M.
Krempe had given me concerning the lectures. And
although I could not consent to go and hear that little
conceited fellow deliver sentences out of a pulpit, I
recollected what he had said of M. Waldman, whom I had
never seen, as he had hitherto been out of town.
Partly from curiosity and partly from idleness, I went
into the lecturing room, which M. Waldman entered
shortly after. This professor was very unlike his colleague.
He appeared about fifty years of age, but with an aspect
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expressive of the greatest benevolence; a few grey hairs
covered his temples, but those at the back of his head were
nearly black. His person was short but remarkably erect
and his voice the sweetest I had ever heard. He began his
lecture by a recapitulation of the history of chemistry and
the various improvements made by different men of
learning, pronouncing with fervour the names of the most
distinguished discoverers. He then took a cursory view of
the present state of the science and explained many of its
elementary terms. After having made a few preparatory
experiments, he concluded with a panegyric upon modern
chemistry, the terms of which I shall never forget: ‘The
ancient teachers of this science,’ said he, ‘promised
impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern
masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot
be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera but
these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to
dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope
or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They
penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she
works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens;
they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the
nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and
almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders
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of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the
invisible world with its own shadows.’
Such were the professor’s words—rather let me say
such the words of the fate—enounced to destroy me. As
he went on I felt as if my soul were grappling with a
palpable enemy; one by one the various keys were
touched which formed the mechanism of my being; chord
after chord was sounded, and soon my mind was filled
with one thought, one conception, one purpose. So much
has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more,
far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already
marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown
powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of
creation.
I closed not my eyes that night. My internal being was
in a state of insurrection and turmoil; I felt that order
would thence arise, but I had no power to produce it. By
degrees, after the morning’s dawn, sleep came. I awoke,
and my yesternight’s thoughts were as a dream. There
only remained a resolution to return to my ancient studies
and to devote myself to a science for which I believed
myself to possess a natural talent. On the same day I paid
M. Waldman a visit. His manners in private were even
more mild and attractive than in public, for there was a
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certain dignity in his mien during his lecture which in his
own house was replaced by the greatest affability and
kindness. I gave him pretty nearly the same account of my
former pursuits as I had given to his fellow professor. He
heard with attention the little narration concerning my
studies and smiled at the names of Cornelius Agrippa and
Paracelsus, but without the contempt that M. Krempe had
exhibited. He said that ‘These were men to whose
indefatigable zeal modern philosophers were indebted for
most of the foundations of their knowledge. They had left
to us, as an easier task, to give new names and arrange in
connected classifications the facts which they in a great
degree had been the instruments of bringing to light. The
labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed,
scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid
advantage of mankind.’ I listened to his statement, which
was delivered without any presumption or affectation, and
then added that his lecture had removed my prejudices
against modern chemists; I expressed myself in measured
terms, with the modesty and deference due from a youth
to his instructor, without letting escape (inexperience in
life would have made me ashamed) any of the enthusiasm
which stimulated my intended labours. I requested his
advice concerning the books I ought to procure.
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‘I am happy,’ said M. Waldman, ‘to have gained a
disciple; and if your application equals your ability, I have
no doubt of your success. Chemistry is that branch of
natural philosophy in which the greatest improvements
have been and may be made; it is on that account that I
have made it my peculiar study; but at the same time, I
have not neglected the other branches of science. A man
would make but a very sorry chemist if he attended to that
department of human knowledge alone. If your wish is to
become really a man of science and not merely a petty
experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every
branch of natural philosophy, including mathematics.’ He
then took me into his laboratory and explained to me the
uses of his various machines, instructing me as to what I
ought to procure and promising me the use of his own
when I should have advanced far enough in the science
not to derange their mechanism. He also gave me the list
of books which I had requested, and I took my leave.
Thus ended a day memorable to me; it decided my
future destiny.
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Chapter 4
From this day natural philosophy, and particularly
chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the term,
became nearly my sole occupation. I read with ardour
those works, so full of genius and discrimination, which
modern inquirers have written on these subjects. I
attended the lectures and cultivated the acquaintance of
the men of science of the university, and I found even in
M. Krempe a great deal of sound sense and real
information, combined, it is true, with a repulsive
physiognomy and manners, but not on that account the
less valuable. In M. Waldman I found a true friend. His
gentleness was never tinged by dogmatism, and his
instructions were given with an air of frankness and good
nature that banished every idea of pedantry. In a thousand
ways he smoothed for me the path of knowledge and
made the most abstruse inquiries clear and facile to my
apprehension. My application was at first fluctuating and
uncertain; it gained strength as I proceeded and soon
became so ardent and eager that the stars often disappeared
in the light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my
laboratory.
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As I applied so closely, it may be easily conceived that
my progress was rapid. My ardour was indeed the
astonishment of the students, and my proficiency that of
the masters. Professor Krempe often asked me, with a sly
smile, how Cornelius Agrippa went on, whilst M.
Waldman expressed the most heartfelt exultation in my
progress. Two years passed in this manner, during which I
paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged, heart and soul,
in the pursuit of some discoveries which I hoped to make.
None but those who have experienced them can conceive
of the enticements of science. In other studies you go as
far as others have gone before you, and there is nothing
more to know; but in a scientific pursuit there is continual
food for discovery and wonder. A mind of moderate
capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly
arrive at great proficiency in that study; and I, who
continually sought the attainment of one object of pursuit
and was solely wrapped up in this, improved so rapidly
that at the end of two years I made some discoveries in the
improvement of some chemical instruments, which
procured me great esteem and admiration at the
university. When I had arrived at this point and had
become as well acquainted with the theory and practice of
natural philosophy as depended on the lessons of any of
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the professors at Ingolstadt, my residence there being no
longer conducive to my improvements, I thought of
returning to my friends and my native town, when an
incident happened that protracted my stay.
One of the phenomena which had peculiarly attracted
my attention was the structure of the human frame, and,
indeed, any animal endued with life. Whence, I often
asked myself, did the principle of life proceed? It was a
bold question, and one which has ever been considered as
a mystery; yet with how many things are we upon the
brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness
did not restrain our inquiries. I revolved these
circumstances in my mind and determined thenceforth to
apply myself more particularly to those branches of natural
philosophy which relate to physiology. Unless I had been
animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm, my
application to this study would have been irksome and
almost intolerable. To examine the causes of life, we must
first have recourse to death. I became acquainted with the
science of anatomy, but this was not sufficient; I must also
observe the natural decay and corruption of the human
body. In my education my father had taken the greatest
precautions that my mind should be impressed with no
supernatural horrors. I do not ever remember to have
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trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the
apparition of a spirit. Darkness had no effect upon my
fancy, and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle
of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of
beauty and strength, had become food for the worm.
Now I was led to examine the cause and progress of this
decay and forced to spend days and nights in vaults and
charnel-houses. My attention was fixed upon every object
the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human
feelings. I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and
wasted; I beheld the corruption of death succeed to the
blooming cheek of life; I saw how the worm inherited the
wonders of the eye and brain. I paused, examining and
analysing all the minutiae of causation, as exemplified in
the change from life to death, and death to life, until from
the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon
me—a light so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that
while I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect
which it illustrated, I was surprised that among so many
men of genius who had directed their inquiries towards
the same science, that I alone should be reserved to
discover so astonishing a secret.
Remember, I am not recording the vision of a
madman. The sun does not more certainly shine in the
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heavens than that which I now affirm is true. Some
miracle might have produced it, yet the stages of the
discovery were distinct and probable. After days and nights
of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering
the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became
myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless
matter.
The astonishment which I had at first experienced on
this discovery soon gave place to delight and rapture. After
so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at
the summit of my desires was the most gratifying
consummation of my toils. But this discovery was so great
and overwhelming that all the steps by which I had been
progressively led to it were obliterated, and I beheld only
the result. What had been the study and desire of the
wisest men since the creation of the world was now
within my grasp. Not that, like a magic scene, it all
opened upon me at once: the information I had obtained
was of a nature rather to direct my endeavours so soon as I
should point them towards the object of my search than to
exhibit that object already accomplished. I was like the
Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a
passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and
seemingly ineffectual light.
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I see by your eagerness and the wonder and hope
which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be
informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that
cannot be; listen patiently until the end of my story, and
you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that
subject. I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I
then was, to your destruction and infallible misery. Learn
from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example,
how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how
much happier that man is who believes his native town to
be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than
his nature will allow.
When I found so astonishing a power placed within my
hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in
which I should employ it. Although I possessed the
capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame
for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibres,
muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable
difficulty and labour. I doubted at first whether I should
attempt the creation of a being like myself, or one of
simpler organization; but my imagination was too much
exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt of my
ability to give life to an animal as complete and wonderful
as man. The materials at present within my command
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hardly appeared adequate to so arduous an undertaking,
but I doubted not that I should ultimately succeed. I
prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations
might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be
imperfect, yet when I considered the improvement which
every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was
encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay
the foundations of future success. Nor could I consider the
magnitude and complexity of my plan as any argument of
its impracticability. It was with these feelings that I began
the creation of a human being. As the minuteness of the
parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved,
contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a
gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height,
and proportionably large. After having formed this
determination and having spent some months in
successfully collecting and arranging my materials, I began.
No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore
me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of
success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds,
which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of
light into our dark world. A new species would bless me
as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures
would owe their being to me. No father could claim the
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gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve
theirs. Pursuing these reflections, I thought that if I could
bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process
of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life
where death had apparently devoted the body to
corruption.
These thoughts supported my spirits, while I pursued
my undertaking with unremitting ardour. My cheek had
grown pale with study, and my person had become
emaciated with confinement. Sometimes, on the very
brink of certainty, I failed; yet still I clung to the hope
which the next day or the next hour might realize. One
secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I
had dedicated myself; and the moon gazed on my
midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless
eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. Who
shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled
among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the
living animal to animate the lifeless clay? My limbs now
tremble, and my eyes swim with the remembrance; but
then a resistless and almost frantic impulse urged me
forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for
this one pursuit. It was indeed but a passing trance, that
only made me feel with renewed acuteness so soon as, the
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unnatural stimulus ceasing to operate, I had returned to
my old habits. I collected bones from charnel-houses and
disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of
the human frame. In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at
the top of the house, and separated from all the other
apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop
of filthy creation; my eyeballs were starting from their
sockets in attending to the details of my employment. The
dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of
my materials; and often did my human nature turn with
loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an
eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work
near to a conclusion.
The summer months passed while I was thus engaged,
heart and soul, in one pursuit. It was a most beautiful
season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest
or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage, but my eyes
were insensible to the charms of nature. And the same
feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me
caused me also to forget those friends who were so many
miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time.
I knew my silence disquieted them, and I well
remembered the words of my father: ‘I know that while
you are pleased with yourself you will think of us with
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affection, and we shall hear regularly from you. You must
pardon me if I regard any interruption in your
correspondence as a proof that your other duties are
equally neglected.’
I knew well therefore what would be my father’s
feelings, but I could not tear my thoughts from my
employment, loathsome in itself, but which had taken an
irresistible hold of my imagination. I wished, as it were, to
procrastinate all that related to my feelings of affection
until the great object, which swallowed up every habit of
my nature, should be completed.
I then thought that my father would be unjust if he
ascribed my neglect to vice or faultiness on my part, but I
am now convinced that he was justified in conceiving that
I should not be altogether free from blame. A human
being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and
peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory
desire to disturb his tranquillity. I do not think that the
pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the
study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to
weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those
simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then
that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting
the human mind. If this rule were always observed; if no
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man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the
tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been
enslaved, Caesar would have spared his country, America
would have been discovered more gradually, and the
empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed.
But I forget that I am moralizing in the most interesting
part of my tale, and your looks remind me to proceed. My
father made no reproach in his letters and only took notice
of my science by inquiring into my occupations more
particularly than before. Winter, spring, and summer
passed away during my labours; but I did not watch the
blossom or the expanding leaves—sights which before
always yielded me supreme delight—so deeply was I
engrossed in my occupation. The leaves of that year had
withered before my work drew near to a close, and now
every day showed me more plainly how well I had
succeeded. But my enthusiasm was checked by my
anxiety, and I appeared rather like one doomed by slavery
to toil in the mines, or any other unwholesome trade than
an artist occupied by his favourite employment. Every
night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became
nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled
me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been
guilty of a crime. Sometimes I grew alarmed at the wreck
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I perceived that I had become; the energy of my purpose
alone sustained me: my labours would soon end, and I
believed that exercise and amusement would then drive
away incipient disease; and I promised myself both of
these when my creation should be complete.
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Chapter 5
It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the
accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost
amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life
around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the
lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the
morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and
my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of
the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of
the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
motion agitated its limbs.
How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or
how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains
and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in
proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful.
Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the
work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a
lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness;
but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast
with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same
colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set,
his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.
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The different accidents of life are not so changeable as
the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly
two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an
inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and
health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded
moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the
dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my
heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had
created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long
time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my
mind to sleep. At length lassitude succeeded to the tumult
I had before endured, and I threw myself on the bed in
my clothes, endeavouring to seek a few moments of
forgetfulness. But it was in vain; I slept, indeed, but I was
disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth,
in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt.
Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I
imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with
the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I
thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my
arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-
worms crawling in the folds of the flannel. I started from
my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead,
my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed;
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when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it
forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the
wretch— the miserable monster whom I had created. He
held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they
may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he
muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled
his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one
hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I
escaped and rushed downstairs. I took refuge in the
courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited,
where I remained during the rest of the night, walking up
and down in the greatest agitation, listening attentively,
catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce
the approach of the demoniacal corpse to which I had so
miserably given life.
Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that
countenance. A mummy again endued with animation
could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on
him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those
muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it
became a thing such as even Dante could not have
conceived.
I passed the night wretchedly. Sometimes my pulse beat
so quickly and hardly that I felt the palpitation of every
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artery; at others, I nearly sank to the ground through
languor and extreme weakness. Mingled with this horror,
I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had
been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were
now become a hell to me; and the change was so rapid,
the overthrow so complete!
Morning, dismal and wet, at length dawned and
discovered to my sleepless and aching eyes the church of
Ingolstadt, its white steeple and clock, which indicated the
sixth hour. The porter opened the gates of the court,
which had that night been my asylum, and I issued into
the streets, pacing them with quick steps, as if I sought to
avoid the wretch whom I feared every turning of the
street would present to my view. I did not dare return to
the apartment which I inhabited, but felt impelled to
hurry on, although drenched by the rain which poured
from a black and comfortless sky.
I continued walking in this manner for some time,
endeavouring by bodily exercise to ease the load that
weighed upon my mind. I traversed the streets without
any clear conception of where I was or what I was doing.
My heart palpitated in the sickness of fear, and I hurried
on with irregular steps, not daring to look about me:
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Like one who, on a lonely road,
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.
[Coleridge’s ‘Ancient Mariner.’]
Continuing thus, I came at length opposite to the inn
at which the various diligences and carriages usually
stopped. Here I paused, I knew not why; but I remained
some minutes with my eyes fixed on a coach that was
coming towards me from the other end of the street. As it
drew nearer I observed that it was the Swiss diligence; it
stopped just where I was standing, and on the door being
opened, I perceived Henry Clerval, who, on seeing me,
instantly sprung out. ‘My dear Frankenstein,’ exclaimed
he, ‘how glad I am to see you! How fortunate that you
should be here at the very moment of my alighting!’
Nothing could equal my delight on seeing Clerval; his
presence brought back to my thoughts my father,
Elizabeth, and all those scenes of home so dear to my
recollection. I grasped his hand, and in a moment forgot
my horror and misfortune; I felt suddenly, and for the first
time during many months, calm and serene joy. I
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welcomed my friend, therefore, in the most cordial
manner, and we walked towards my college. Clerval
continued talking for some time about our mutual friends
and his own good fortune in being permitted to come to
Ingolstadt. ‘You may easily believe,’ said he, ‘how great
was the difficulty to persuade my father that all necessary
knowledge was not comprised in the noble art of
bookkeeping; and, indeed, I believe I left him incredulous
to the last, for his constant answer to my unwearied
entreaties was the same as that of the Dutch schoolmaster
in *The Vicar of Wakefield*: ‘I have ten thousand florins
a year without Greek, I eat heartily without Greek.’ But
his affection for me at length overcame his dislike of
learning, and he has permitted me to undertake a voyage
of discovery to the land of knowledge.’
‘It gives me the greatest delight to see you; but tell me
how you left my father, brothers, and Elizabeth.’
‘Very well, and very happy, only a little uneasy that
they hear from you so seldom. By the by, I mean to
lecture you a little upon their account myself. But, my
dear Frankenstein,’ continued he, stopping short and
gazing full in my face, ‘I did not before remark how very
ill you appear; so thin and pale; you look as if you had
been watching for several nights.’
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‘You have guessed right; I have lately been so deeply
engaged in one occupation that I have not allowed myself
sufficient rest, as you see; but I hope, I sincerely hope, that
all these employments are now at an end and that I am at
length free.’
I trembled excessively; I could not endure to think of,
and far less to allude to, the occurrences of the preceding
night. I walked with a quick pace, and we soon arrived at
my college. I then reflected, and the thought made me
shiver, that the creature whom I had left in my apartment
might still be there, alive and walking about. I dreaded to
behold this monster, but I feared still more that Henry
should see him. Entreating him, therefore, to remain a few
minutes at the bottom of the stairs, I darted up towards my
own room. My hand was already on the lock of the door
before I recollected myself. I then paused, and a cold
shivering came over me. I threw the door forcibly open,
as children are accustomed to do when they expect a
spectre to stand in waiting for them on the other side; but
nothing appeared. I stepped fearfully in: the apartment was
empty, and my bedroom was also freed from its hideous
guest. I could hardly believe that so great a good fortune
could have befallen me, but when I became assured that
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my enemy had indeed fled, I clapped my hands for joy and
ran down to Clerval.
We ascended into my room, and the servant presently
brought breakfast; but I was unable to contain myself. It
was not joy only that possessed me; I felt my flesh tingle
with excess of sensitiveness, and my pulse beat rapidly. I
was unable to remain for a single instant in the same place;
I jumped over the chairs, clapped my hands, and laughed
aloud. Clerval at first attributed my unusual spirits to joy
on his arrival, but when he observed me more attentively,
he saw a wildness in my eyes for which he could not
account, and my loud, unrestrained, heartless laughter
frightened and astonished him.
‘My dear Victor,’ cried he, ‘what, for God’s sake, is the
matter? Do not laugh in that manner. How ill you are!
What is the cause of all this?’
‘Do not ask me,’ cried I, putting my hands before my
eyes, for I thought I saw the dreaded spectre glide into the
room; ‘*he* can tell. Oh, save me! Save me!’ I imagined
that the monster seized me; I struggled furiously and fell
down in a fit.
Poor Clerval! What must have been his feelings? A
meeting, which he anticipated with such joy, so strangely
turned to bitterness. But I was not the witness of his grief,
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for I was lifeless and did not recover my senses for a long,
long time.
This was the commencement of a nervous fever which
confined me for several months. During all that time
Henry was my only nurse. I afterwards learned that,
knowing my father’s advanced age and unfitness for so
long a journey, and how wretched my sickness would
make Elizabeth, he spared them this grief by concealing
the extent of my disorder. He knew that I could not have
a more kind and attentive nurse than himself; and, firm in
the hope he felt of my recovery, he did not doubt that,
instead of doing harm, he performed the kindest action
that he could towards them.
But I was in reality very ill, and surely nothing but the
unbounded and unremitting attentions of my friend could
have restored me to life. The form of the monster on
whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my
eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him. Doubtless
my words surprised Henry; he at first believed them to be
the wanderings of my disturbed imagination, but the
pertinacity with which I continually recurred to the same
subject persuaded him that my disorder indeed owed its
origin to some uncommon and terrible event.
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By very slow degrees, and with frequent relapses that
alarmed and grieved my friend, I recovered. I remember
the first time I became capable of observing outward
objects with any kind of pleasure, I perceived that the
fallen leaves had disappeared and that the young buds were
shooting forth from the trees that shaded my window. It
was a divine spring, and the season contributed greatly to
my convalescence. I felt also sentiments of joy and
affection revive in my bosom; my gloom disappeared, and
in a short time I became as cheerful as before I was
attacked by the fatal passion.
‘Dearest Clerval,’ exclaimed I, ‘how kind, how very
good you are to me. This whole winter, instead of being
spent in study, as you promised yourself, has been
consumed in my sick room. How shall I ever repay you? I
feel the greatest remorse for the disappointment of which I
have been the occasion, but you will forgive me.’
‘You will repay me entirely if you do not discompose
yourself, but get well as fast as you can; and since you
appear in such good spirits, I may speak to you on one
subject, may I not?’
I trembled. One subject! What could it be? Could he
allude to an object on whom I dared not even think?
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‘Compose yourself,’ said Clerval, who observed my
change of colour, ‘I will not mention it if it agitates you;
but your father and cousin would be very happy if they
received a letter from you in your own handwriting. They
hardly know how ill you have been and are uneasy at your
long silence.’
‘Is that all, my dear Henry? How could you suppose
that my first thought would not fly towards those dear,
dear friends whom I love and who are so deserving of my
love?’
‘If this is your present temper, my friend, you will
perhaps be glad to see a letter that has been lying here
some days for you; it is from your cousin, I believe.’
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Chapter 6
Clerval then put the following letter into my hands. It
was from my own Elizabeth:
My dearest Cousin,
You have been ill, very ill, and even the constant letters
of dear kind Henry are not sufficient to reassure me on
your account. You are forbidden to write—to hold a pen;
yet one word from you, dear Victor, is necessary to calm
our apprehensions. For a long time I have thought that
each post would bring this line, and my persuasions have
restrained my uncle from undertaking a journey to
Ingolstadt. I have prevented his encountering the
inconveniences and perhaps dangers of so long a journey,
yet how often have I regretted not being able to perform
it myself! I figure to myself that the task of attending on
your sickbed has devolved on some mercenary old nurse,
who could never guess your wishes nor minister to them
with the care and affection of your poor cousin. Yet that is
over now: Clerval writes that indeed you are getting
better. I eagerly hope that you will confirm this
intelligence soon in your own handwriting.
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Get well—and return to us. You will find a happy,
cheerful home and friends who love you dearly. Your
father’s health is vigorous, and he asks but to see you, but
to be assured that you are well; and not a care will ever
cloud his benevolent countenance. How pleased you
would be to remark the improvement of our Ernest! He is
now sixteen and full of activity and spirit. He is desirous to
be a true Swiss and to enter into foreign service, but we
cannot part with him, at least until his elder brother return
to us. My uncle is not pleased with the idea of a military
career in a distant country, but Ernest never had your
powers of application. He looks upon study as an odious
fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills
or rowing on the lake. I fear that he will become an idler
unless we yield the point and permit him to enter on the
profession which he has selected.
Little alteration, except the growth of our dear
children, has taken place since you left us. The blue lake
and snow-clad mountains—they never change; and I think
our placid home and our contented hearts are regulated by
the same immutable laws. My trifling occupations take up
my time and amuse me, and I am rewarded for any
exertions by seeing none but happy, kind faces around me.
Since you left us, but one change has taken place in our
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little household. Do you remember on what occasion
Justine Moritz entered our family? Probably you do not; I
will relate her history, therefore, in a few words. Madame
Moritz, her mother, was a widow with four children, of
whom Justine was the third. This girl had always been the
favourite of her father, but through a strange perversity,
her mother could not endure her, and after the death of
M. Moritz, treated her very ill. My aunt observed this, and
when Justine was twelve years of age, prevailed on her
mother to allow her to live at our house. The republican
institutions of our country have produced simpler and
happier manners than those which prevail in the great
monarchies that surround it. Hence there is less distinction
between the several classes of its inhabitants; and the lower
orders, being neither so poor nor so despised, their
manners are more refined and moral. A servant in Geneva
does not mean the same thing as a servant in France and
England. Justine, thus received in our family, learned the
duties of a servant, a condition which, in our fortunate
country, does not include the idea of ignorance and a
sacrifice of the dignity of a human being.
Justine, you may remember, was a great favourite of
yours; and I recollect you once remarked that if you were
in an ill humour, one glance from Justine could dissipate
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it, for the same reason that Ariosto gives concerning the
beauty of Angelica—she looked so frank-hearted and
happy. My aunt conceived a great attachment for her, by
which she was induced to give her an education superior
to that which she had at first intended. This benefit was
fully repaid; Justine was the most grateful little creature in
the world: I do not mean that she made any professions; I
never heard one pass her lips, but you could see by her
eyes that she almost adored her protectress. Although her
disposition was gay and in many respects inconsiderate, yet
she paid the greatest attention to every gesture of my aunt.
She thought her the model of all excellence and
endeavoured to imitate her phraseology and manners, so
that even now she often reminds me of her.
When my dearest aunt died every one was too much
occupied in their own grief to notice poor Justine, who
had attended her during her illness with the most anxious
affection. Poor Justine was very ill; but other trials were
reserved for her.
One by one, her brothers and sister died; and her
mother, with the exception of her neglected daughter, was
left childless. The conscience of the woman was troubled;
she began to think that the deaths of her favourites was a
judgment from heaven to chastise her partiality. She was a
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Roman Catholic; and I believe her confessor confirmed
the idea which she had conceived. Accordingly, a few
months after your departure for Ingolstadt, Justine was
called home by her repentant mother. Poor girl! She wept
when she quitted our house; she was much altered since
the death of my aunt; grief had given softness and a
winning mildness to her manners which had before been
remarkable for vivacity. Nor was her residence at her
mother’s house of a nature to restore her gaiety. The poor
woman was very vacillating in her repentance. She
sometimes begged Justine to forgive her unkindness but
much oftener accused her of having caused the deaths of
her brothers and sister. Perpetual fretting at length threw
Madame Moritz into a decline, which at first increased her
irritability, but she is now at peace for ever. She died on
the first approach of cold weather, at the beginning of this
last winter. Justine has returned to us, and I assure you I
love her tenderly. She is very clever and gentle and
extremely pretty; as I mentioned before, her mien and her
expressions continually remind me of my dear aunt.
I must say also a few words to you, my dear cousin, of
little darling William. I wish you could see him; he is very
tall of his age, with sweet laughing blue eyes, dark
eyelashes, and curling hair. When he smiles, two little
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dimples appear on each cheek, which are rosy with health.
He has already had one or two little *wives*, but Louisa
Biron is his favourite, a pretty little girl of five years of age.
Now, dear Victor, I dare say you wish to be indulged
in a little gossip concerning the good people of Geneva.
The pretty Miss Mansfield has already received the
congratulatory visits on her approaching marriage with a
young Englishman, John Melbourne, Esq. Her ugly sister,
Manon, married M. Duvillard, the rich banker, last
autumn. Your favourite schoolfellow, Louis Manoir, has
suffered several misfortunes since the departure of Clerval
from Geneva. But he has already recovered his spirits, and
is reported to be on the point of marrying a very lively,
pretty Frenchwoman, Madame Tavernier. She is a widow,
and much older than Manoir, but she is very much
admired and a favourite with everybody.
I have written myself into better spirits, dear cousin;
but my anxiety returns upon me as I conclude. Write,
dearest Victor—one line—one word will be a blessing to
us. Ten thousand thanks to Henry for his kindness, his
affection, and his many letters; we are sincerely grateful.
Adieu! My cousin, take care of yourself, and, I entreat
you, write!
Elizabeth Lavenza
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Geneva, March 18th, 17—
‘Dear, dear Elizabeth!’ I exclaimed when I had read her
letter. ‘I will write instantly and relieve them from the
anxiety they must feel.’ I wrote, and this exertion greatly
fatigued me; but my convalescence had commenced, and
proceeded regularly. In another fortnight I was able to
leave my chamber.
One of my first duties on my recovery was to introduce
Clerval to the several professors of the university. In doing
this, I underwent a kind of rough usage, ill befitting the
wounds that my mind had sustained. Ever since the fatal
night, the end of my labours, and the beginning of my
misfortunes, I had conceived a violent antipathy even to
the name of natural philosophy. When I was otherwise
quite restored to health, the sight of a chemical instrument
would renew all the agony of my nervous symptoms.
Henry saw this, and had removed all my apparatus from
my view. He had also changed my apartment, for he
perceived that I had acquired a dislike for the room which
had previously been my laboratory. But these cares of
Clerval were made of no avail when I visited the
professors. M. Waldman inflicted torture when he praised,
with kindness and warmth, the astonishing progress I had
made in the sciences. He soon perceived that I disliked the
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subject, but not guessing the real cause, he attributed my
feelings to modesty and changed the subject from my
improvement to the science itself, with a desire, as I
evidently saw, of drawing me out. What could I do? He
meant to please, and he tormented me. I felt as if he had
placed carefully, one by one, in my view those instruments
which were to be afterwards used in putting me to a slow
and cruel death. I writhed under his words yet dared not
exhibit the pain I felt. Clerval, whose eyes and feelings
were always quick in discerning the sensations of others,
declined the subject, alleging, in excuse, his total
ignorance; and the conversation took a more general turn.
I thanked my friend from my heart, but I did not speak. I
saw plainly that he was surprised, but he never attempted
to draw my secret from me; and although I loved him
with a mixture of affection and reverence that knew no
bounds, yet I could never persuade myself to confide to
him that event which was so often present to my
recollection but which I feared the detail to another would
only impress more deeply.
M. Krempe was not equally docile; and in my
condition at that time, of almost insupportable
sensitiveness, his harsh, blunt encomiums gave me even
more pain than the benevolent approbation of M.
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Waldman. ‘D—n the fellow!’ cried he. ‘Why, M. Clerval,
I assure you he has outstripped us all. Ay, stare if you
please; but it is nevertheless true. A youngster who, but a
few years ago, believed in Cornelius Agrippa as firmly as
in the Gospel, has now set himself at the head of the
university; and if he is not soon pulled down, we shall all
be out of countenance. Ay, ay,’ continued he, observing
my face expressive of suffering, ‘M. Frankenstein is
modest, an excellent quality in a young man. Young men
should be diffident of themselves, you know, M. Clerval; I
was myself when young; but that wears out in a very short
time.’
M. Krempe had now commenced a eulogy on himself,
which happily turned the conversation from a subject that
was so annoying to me.
Clerval had never sympathized in my tastes for natural
science, and his literary pursuits differed wholly from those
which had occupied me. He came to the university with
the design of making himself complete master of the
Oriental languages, as thus he should open a field for the
plan of life he had marked out for himself. Resolved to
pursue no inglorious career, he turned his eyes towards the
East as affording scope for his spirit of enterprise. The
Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit languages engaged his
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attention, and I was easily induced to enter on the same
studies. Idleness had ever been irksome to me, and now
that I wished to fly from reflection and hated my former
studies, I felt great relief in being the fellow pupil with my
friend, and found not only instruction but consolation in
the works of the Orientalists. I did not, like him, attempt a
critical knowledge of their dialects, for I did not
contemplate making any other use of them than
temporary amusement. I read merely to understand their
meaning, and they well repaid my labours. Their
melancholy is soothing, and their joy elevating, to a
degree I never experienced in studying the authors of any
other country. When you read their writings, life appears
to consist in a warm sun and a garden of roses, in the
smiles and frowns of a fair enemy, and the fire that
consumes your own heart. How different from the manly
and heroical poetry of Greece and Rome!
Summer passed away in these occupations, and my
return to Geneva was fixed for the latter end of autumn;
but being delayed by several accidents, winter and snow
arrived, the roads were deemed impassable, and my
journey was retarded until the ensuing spring. I felt this
delay very bitterly, for I longed to see my native town and
my beloved friends. My return had only been delayed so
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long from an unwillingness to leave Clerval in a strange
place before he had become acquainted with any of its
inhabitants. The winter, however, was spent cheerfully,
and although the spring was uncommonly late, when it
came its beauty compensated for its dilatoriness.
The month of May had already commenced, and I
expected the letter daily which was to fix the date of my
departure, when Henry proposed a pedestrian tour in the
environs of Ingolstadt, that I might bid a personal farewell
to the country I had so long inhabited. I acceded with
pleasure to this proposition: I was fond of exercise, and
Clerval had always been my favourite companion in the
rambles of this nature that I had taken among the scenes of
my native country.
We passed a fortnight in these perambulations; my
health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained
additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the
natural incidents of our progress, and the conversation of
my friend. Study had before secluded me from the
intercourse of my fellow creatures and rendered me
unsocial, but Clerval called forth the better feelings of my
heart; he again taught me to love the aspect of nature and
the cheerful faces of children. Excellent friend! How
sincerely did you love me and endeavour to elevate my
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mind until it was on a level with your own! A selfish
pursuit had cramped and narrowed me until your
gentleness and affection warmed and opened my senses; I
became the same happy creature who, a few years ago,
loved and beloved by all, had no sorrow or care. When
happy, inanimate nature had the power of bestowing on
me the most delightful sensations. A serene sky and
verdant fields filled me with ecstasy. The present season
was indeed divine; the flowers of spring bloomed in the
hedges, while those of summer were already in bud. I was
undisturbed by thoughts which during the preceding year
had pressed upon me, notwithstanding my endeavours to
throw them off, with an invincible burden.
Henry rejoiced in my gaiety and sincerely sympathized
in my feelings; he exerted himself to amuse me, while he
expressed the sensations that filled his soul. The resources
of his mind on this occasion were truly astonishing; his
conversation was full of imagination, and very often, in
imitation of the Persian and Arabic writers, he invented
tales of wonderful fancy and passion. At other times he
repeated my favourite poems or drew me out into
arguments, which he supported with great ingenuity.
We returned to our college on a Sunday afternoon; the
peasants were dancing, and everyone we met appeared gay
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and happy. My own spirits were high, and I bounded
along with feelings of unbridled joy and hilarity.
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Chapter 7
On my return, I found the following letter from my
father:—
‘My dear Victor,
‘You have probably waited impatiently for a letter to
fix the date of your return to us; and I was at first tempted
to write only a few lines, merely mentioning the day on
which I should expect you. But that would be a cruel
kindness, and I dare not do it. What would be your
surprise, my son, when you expected a happy and glad
welcome, to behold, on the contrary, tears and
wretchedness? And how, Victor, can I relate our
misfortune? Absence cannot have rendered you callous to
our joys and griefs; and how shall I inflict pain on my long
absent son? I wish to prepare you for the woeful news, but
I know it is impossible; even now your eye skims over the
page to seek the words which are to convey to you the
horrible tidings.
William is dead!—that sweet child, whose smiles
delighted and warmed my heart, who was so gentle, yet so
gay! Victor, he is murdered! I will not attempt to console
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you; but will simply relate the circumstances of the
transaction.
Last Thursday (May 7th), I, my niece, and your two
brothers, went to walk in Plainpalais. The evening was
warm and serene, and we prolonged our walk farther than
usual. It was already dusk before we thought of returning;
and then we discovered that William and Ernest, who had
gone on before, were not to be found. We accordingly
rested on a seat until they should return. Presently Ernest
came, and enquired if we had seen his brother; he said,
that he had been playing with him, that William had run
away to hide himself, and that he vainly sought for him,
and afterwards waited for a long time, but that he did not
return.
This account rather alarmed us, and we continued to
search for him until night fell, when Elizabeth conjectured
that he might have returned to the house. He was not
there. We returned again, with torches; for I could not
rest, when I thought that my sweet boy had lost himself,
and was exposed to all the damps and dews of night;
Elizabeth also suffered extreme anguish. About five in the
morning I discovered my lovely boy, whom the night
before I had seen blooming and active in health, stretched
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on the grass livid and motionless; the print of the
murderer’s finger was on his neck.
He was conveyed home, and the anguish that was
visible in my countenance betrayed the secret to Elizabeth.
She was very earnest to see the corpse. At first I attempted
to prevent her; but she persisted, and entering the room
where it lay, hastily examined the neck of the victim, and
clasping her hands exclaimed, ‘O God! I have murdered
my darling child!’
She fainted, and was restored with extreme difficulty.
When she again lived, it was only to weep and sigh. She
told me, that that same evening William had teased her to
let him wear a very valuable miniature that she possessed
of your mother. This picture is gone, and was doubtless
the temptation which urged the murdered to the deed.
We have no trace of him at present, although our
exertions to discover him are unremitted; but they will
not restore my beloved William!
Come, dearest Victor; you alone can console Elizabeth.
She weeps continually, and accuses herself unjustly as the
cause of his death; her words pierce my heart. We are all
unhappy; but will not that be an additional motive for
you, my son, to return and be our comforter? Your dear
mother! Alas, Victor! I now say, Thank God she did not
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live to witness the cruel, miserable death of her youngest
darling!
Come, Victor; not brooding thoughts of vengeance
against the assassin, but with feelings of peace and
gentleness, that will heal, instead of festering, the wounds
of our minds. Enter the house of mourning, my friend,
but with kindness and affection for those who love you,
and not with hatred for your enemies.
Your affectionate and afflicted father,
Alphonse Frankenstein.
Geneva, May 12th, 17—.
Clerval, who had watched my countenance as I read
this letter, was surprised to observe the despair that
succeeded the joy I at first expressed on receiving new
from my friends. I threw the letter on the table, and
covered my face with my hands.
‘My dear Frankenstein,’ exclaimed Henry, when he
perceived me weep with bitterness, ‘are you always to be
unhappy? My dear friend, what has happened?’
I motioned him to take up the letter, while I walked up
and down the room in the extremest agitation. Tears also
gushed from the eyes of Clerval, as he read the account of
my misfortune.
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‘I can offer you no consolation, my friend,’ said he;
‘your disaster is irreparable. What do you intend to do?’
‘To go instantly to Geneva: come with me, Henry, to
order the horses.’
During our walk, Clerval endeavoured to say a few
words of consolation; he could only express his heartfelt
sympathy. ‘Poor William!’ said he, dear lovely child, he
now sleeps with his angel mother! Who that had seen him
bright and joyous in his young beauty, but must weep
over his untimely loss! To die so miserably; to feel the
murderer’s grasp! How much more a murderer that could
destroy radiant innocence! Poor little fellow! one only
consolation have we; his friends mourn and weep, but he
is at rest. The pang is over, his sufferings are at an end for
ever. A sod covers his gentle form, and he knows no pain.
He can no longer be a subject for pity; we must reserve
that for his miserable survivors.’
Clerval spoke thus as we hurried through the streets;
the words impressed themselves on my mind and I
remembered them afterwards in solitude. But now, as
soon as the horses arrived, I hurried into a cabriolet, and
bade farewell to my friend.
My journey was very melancholy. At first I wished to
hurry on, for I longed to console and sympathise with my
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loved and sorrowing friends; but when I drew near my
native town, I slackened my progress. I could hardly
sustain the multitude of feelings that crowded into my
mind. I passed through scenes familiar to my youth, but
which I had not seen for nearly six years. How altered
every thing might be during that time! One sudden and
desolating change had taken place; but a thousand little
circumstances might have by degrees worked other
alterations, which, although they were done more
tranquilly, might not be the less decisive. Fear overcame
me; I dared no advance, dreading a thousand nameless
evils that made me tremble, although I was unable to
define them.
I remained two days at Lausanne, in this painful state of
mind. I contemplated the lake: the waters were placid; all
around was calm; and the snowy mountains, ‘the palaces
of nature,’ were not changed. By degrees the calm and
heavenly scene restored me, and I continued my journey
towards Geneva.
The road ran by the side of the lake, which became
narrower as I approached my native town. I discovered
more distinctly the black sides of Jura, and the bright
summit of Mont Blanc. I wept like a child. ‘Dear
mountains! my own beautiful lake! how do you welcome
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your wanderer? Your summits are clear; the sky and lake
are blue and placid. Is this to prognosticate peace, or to
mock at my unhappiness?’
I fear, my friend, that I shall render myself tedious by
dwelling on these preliminary circumstances; but they
were days of comparative happiness, and I think of them
with pleasure. My country, my beloved country! who but
a native can tell the delight I took in again beholding thy
streams, thy mountains, and, more than all, thy lovely
lake!
Yet, as I drew nearer home, grief and fear again
overcame me. Night also closed around; and when I could
hardly see the dark mountains, I felt still more gloomily.
The picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil, and I
foresaw obscurely that I was destined to become the most
wretched of human beings. Alas! I prophesied truly, and
failed only in one single circumstance, that in all the
misery I imagined and dreaded, I did not conceive the
hundredth part of the anguish I was destined to endure.
It was completely dark when I arrived in the environs
of Geneva; the gates of the town were already shut; and I
was obliged to pass the night at Secheron, a village at the
distance of half a league from the city. The sky was serene;
and, as I was unable to rest, I resolved to visit the spot
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where my poor William had been murdered. As I could
not pass through the town, I was obliged to cross the lake
in a boat to arrive at Plainpalais. During this short voyage I
saw the lightning playing on the summit of Mont Blanc in
the most beautiful figures. The storm appeared to
approach rapidly, and, on landing, I ascended a low hill,
that I might observe its progress. It advanced; the heavens
were clouded, and I soon felt the rain coming slowly in
large drops, but its violence quickly increased.
I quitted my seat, and walked on, although the darkness
and storm increased every minute, and the thunder burst
with a terrific crash over my head. It was echoed from
Saleve, the Juras, and the Alps of Savoy; vivid flashes of
lightning dazzled my eyes, illuminating the lake, making it
appear like a vast sheet of fire; then for an instant every
thing seemed of a pitchy darkness, until the eye recovered
itself from the preceding flash. The storm, as is often the
case in Switzerland, appeared at once in various parts of
the heavens. The most violent storm hung exactly north
of the town, over the part of the lake which lies between
the promontory of Belrive and the village of Copet.
Another storm enlightened Jura with faint flashes; and
another darkened and sometimes disclosed the Mole, a
peaked mountain to the east of the lake.
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While I watched the tempest, so beautiful yet terrific, I
wandered on with a hasty step. This noble war in the sky
elevated my spirits; I clasped my hands, and exclaimed
aloud, ‘William, dear angel! this is thy funeral, this thy
dirge!’ As I said these words, I perceived in the gloom a
figure which stole from behind a clump of trees near me; I
stood fixed, gazing intently: I could not be mistaken. A
flash of lightning illuminated the object, and discovered its
shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity
of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity,
instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy
daemon, to whom I had given life. What did he there?
Could he be (I shuddered at the conception) the murderer
of my brother? No sooner did that idea cross my
imagination, than I became convinced of its truth; my
teeth chattered, and I was forced to lean against a tree for
support. The figure passed me quickly, and I lost it in the
gloom. Nothing in human shape could have destroyed the
fair child. He was the murderer! I could not doubt it. The
mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the
fact. I thought of pursuing the devil; but it would have
been in vain, for another flash discovered him to me
hanging among the rocks of the nearly perpendicular
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ascent of Mont Saleve, a hill that bounds Plainpalais on the
south. He soon reached the summit, and disappeared.
I remained motionless. The thunder ceased; but the
rain still continued, and the scene was enveloped in an
impenetrable darkness. I resolved in my minds the events
which I had until now sought to forget: the whole train of
my progress toward the creation; the appearance of the
works of my own hands at my bedside; its departure. Two
years had now nearly elapsed since the night on which he
first received life; and was this his first crime? Alas! I had
turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, whose
delight was in carnage and misery; had he not murdered
my brother?
No one can conceive the anguish I suffered during the
remainder of the night, which I spent, cold and wet, in
the open air. But I did not feel the inconvenience of the
weather; my imagination was busy in scenes of evil and
despair. I considered the being whom I had cast among
mankind, and endowed with the will and power to effect
purposes of horror, such as the deed which he had now
done, nearly in the light of my own vampire, my own
spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all
that was dear to me.
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Day dawned; and I directed my steps towards the town.
The gates were open, and I hastened to my father’s house.
My first thought was to discover what I knew of the
murderer, and cause instant pursuit to be made. But I
paused when I reflected on the story that I had to tell. A
being whom I myself had formed, and endued with life,
had met me at midnight among the precipices of an
inaccessible mountain. I remembered also the nervous
fever with which I had been seized just at the time that I
dated my creation, and which would give an air of
delirium to a tale otherwise so utterly improbable. I well
knew that if any other had communicated such a relation
to me, I should have looked upon it as the ravings of
insanity. Besides, the strange nature of the animal would
elude all pursuit, even if I were so far credited as to
persuade my relatives to commence it. And then of what
use would be pursuit? Who could arrest a creature capable
of scaling the overhanging sides of Mont Saleve? These
reflections determined me, and I resolved to remain silent.
It was about five in the morning when I entered my
father’s house. I told the servants not to disturb the family,
and went into the library to attend their usual hour of
rising.
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Six years had elapsed, passed in a dream but for one
indelible trace, and I stood in the same place where I had
last embraced my father before my departure for
Ingolstadt. Beloved and venerable parent! He still
remained to me. I gazed on the picture of my mother,
which stood over the mantel-piece. It was an historical
subject, painted at my father’s desire, and represented
Caroline Beaufort in an agony of despair, kneeling by the
coffin of her dead father. Her garb was rustic, and her
cheek pale; but there was an air of dignity and beauty, that
hardly permitted the sentiment of pity. Below this picture
was a miniature of William; and my tears flowed when I
looked upon it. While I was thus engaged, Ernest entered:
he had heard me arrive, and hastened to welcome me:
‘Welcome, my dearest Victor,’ said he. ‘Ah! I wish you
had come three months ago, and then you would have
found us all joyous and delighted. You come to us now to
share a misery which nothing can alleviate; yet your
presence will, I hope, revive our father, who seems
sinking under his misfortune; and your persuasions will
induce poor Elizabeth to cease her vain and tormenting
self-accusations.—Poor William! he was our darling and
our pride!’
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Tears, unrestrained, fell from my brother’s eyes; a sense
of mortal agony crept over my frame. Before, I had only
imagined the wretchedness of my desolated home; the
reality came on me as a new, and a not less terrible,
disaster. I tried to calm Ernest; I enquired more minutely
concerning my father, and her I named my cousin.
‘She most of all,’ said Ernest, ‘requires consolation; she
accused herself of having caused the death of my brother,
and that made her very wretched. But since the murderer
has been discovered—‘
‘The murderer discovered! Good God! how can that
be? who could attempt to pursue him? It is impossible;
one might as well try to overtake the winds, or confine a
mountain-stream with a straw. I saw him too; he was free
last night!’
‘I do not know what you mean,’ replied my brother, in
accents of wonder, ‘but to us the discovery we have made
completes our misery. No one would believe it at first;
and even now Elizabeth will not be convinced,
notwithstanding all the evidence. Indeed, who would
credit that Justine Moritz, who was so amiable, and fond
of all the family, could suddenly become so capable of so
frightful, so appalling a crime?’
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‘Justine Moritz! Poor, poor girl, is she the accused? But
it is wrongfully; every one knows that; no one believes it,
surely, Ernest?’
‘No one did at first; but several circumstances came
out, that have almost forced conviction upon us; and her
own behaviour has been so confused, as to add to the
evidence of facts a weight that, I fear, leaves no hope for
doubt. But she will be tried to-day, and you will then hear
all.’
He then related that, the morning on which the
murder of poor William had been discovered, Justine had
been taken ill, and confined to her bed for several days.
During this interval, one of the servants, happening to
examine the apparel she had worn on the night of the
murder, had discovered in her pocket the picture of my
mother, which had been judged to be the temptation of
the murderer. The servant instantly showed it to one of
the others, who, without saying a word to any of the
family, went to a magistrate; and, upon their deposition,
Justine was apprehended. On being charged with the fact,
the poor girl confirmed the suspicion in a great measure
by her extreme confusion of manner. This was a strange
tale, but it did not shake my faith; and I replied earnestly,
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‘You are all mistaken; I know the murderer. Justine, poor,
good Justine, is innocent.’
At that instant my father entered. I saw unhappiness
deeply impressed on his countenance, but he endeavoured
to welcome me cheerfully; and, after we had exchanged
our mournful greeting, would have introduced some other
topic than that of our disaster, had not Ernest exclaimed,
‘Good God, papa! Victor says that he knows who was the
murderer of poor William.’
‘We do also, unfortunately,’ replied my father, ‘for
indeed I had rather have been for ever ignorant than have
discovered so much depravity and ungratitude in one I
valued so highly.’
‘My dear father, you are mistaken; Justine is innocent.’
‘If she is, God forbid that she should suffer as guilty.
She is to be tried to-day, and I hope, I sincerely hope, that
she will be acquitted.’
This speech calmed me. I was firmly convinced in my
own mind that Justine, and indeed every human being,
was guiltless of this murder. I had no fear, therefore, that
any circumstantial evidence could be brought forward
strong enough to convict her. My tale was not one to
announce publicly; its astounding horror would be looked
upon as madness by the vulgar. Did any one indeed exist,
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except I, the creator, who would believe, unless his senses
convinced him, in the existence of the living monument
of presumption and rash ignorance which I had let loose
upon the world?
We were soon joined by Elizabeth. Time had altered
her since I last beheld her; it had endowed her with
loveliness surpassing the beauty of her childish years.
There was the same candour, the same vivacity, but it was
allied to an expression more full of sensibility and intellect.
She welcomed me with the greatest affection. ‘Your
arrival, my dear cousin,’ said she, ‘fills me with hope. You
perhaps will find some means to justify my poor guiltless
Justine. Alas! who is safe, if she be convicted of crime? I
rely on her innocence as certainly as I do upon my own.
Our misfortune is doubly hard to us; we have not only lost
that lovely darling boy, but this poor girl, whom I
sincerely love, is to be torn away by even a worse fate. If
she is condemned, I never shall know joy more. But she
will not, I am sure she will not; and then I shall be happy
again, even after the sad death of my little William.’
‘She is innocent, my Elizabeth,’ said I, ‘and that shall be
proved; fear nothing, but let your spirits be cheered by the
assurance of her acquittal.’
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‘How kind and generous you are! every one else
believes in her guilt, and that made me wretched, for I
knew that it was impossible: and to see every one else
prejudiced in so deadly a manner rendered me hopeless
and despairing.’ She wept.
‘Dearest niece,’ said my father, ‘dry your tears. If she is,
as you believe, innocent, rely on the justice of our laws,
and the activity with which I shall prevent the slightest
shadow of partiality.’
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Chapter 8
We passed a few sad hours until eleven o’clock, when
the trial was to commence. My father and the rest of the
family being obliged to attend as witnesses, I accompanied
them to the court. During the whole of this wretched
mockery of justice I suffered living torture. It was to be
decided whether the result of my curiosity and lawless
devices would cause the death of two of my fellow beings:
one a smiling babe full of innocence and joy, the other far
more dreadfully murdered, with every aggravation of
infamy that could make the murder memorable in horror.
Justine also was a girl of merit and possessed qualities
which promised to render her life happy; now all was to
be obliterated in an ignominious grave, and I the cause! A
thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty
of the crime ascribed to Justine, but I was absent when it
was committed, and such a declaration would have been
considered as the ravings of a madman and would not
have exculpated her who suffered through me.
The appearance of Justine was calm. She was dressed in
mourning, and her countenance, always engaging, was
rendered, by the solemnity of her feelings, exquisitely
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beautiful. Yet she appeared confident in innocence and
did not tremble, although gazed on and execrated by
thousands, for all the kindness which her beauty might
otherwise have excited was obliterated in the minds of the
spectators by the imagination of the enormity she was
supposed to have committed. She was tranquil, yet her
tranquillity was evidently constrained; and as her confusion
had before been adduced as a proof of her guilt, she
worked up her mind to an appearance of courage. When
she entered the court she threw her eyes round it and
quickly discovered where we were seated. A tear seemed
to dim her eye when she saw us, but she quickly
recovered herself, and a look of sorrowful affection
seemed to attest her utter guiltlessness.
The trial began, and after the advocate against her had
stated the charge, several witnesses were called. Several
strange facts combined against her, which might have
staggered anyone who had not such proof of her
innocence as I had. She had been out the whole of the
night on which the murder had been committed and
towards morning had been perceived by a market-woman
not far from the spot where the body of the murdered
child had been afterwards found. The woman asked her
what she did there, but she looked very strangely and only
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returned a confused and unintelligible answer. She
returned to the house about eight o’clock, and when one
inquired where she had passed the night, she replied that
she had been looking for the child and demanded earnestly
if anything had been heard concerning him. When shown
the body, she fell into violent hysterics and kept her bed
for several days. The picture was then produced which the
servant had found in her pocket; and when Elizabeth, in a
faltering voice, proved that it was the same which, an hour
before the child had been missed, she had placed round his
neck, a murmur of horror and indignation filled the court.
Justine was called on for her defence. As the trial had
proceeded, her countenance had altered. Surprise, horror,
and misery were strongly expressed. Sometimes she
struggled with her tears, but when she was desired to
plead, she collected her powers and spoke in an audible
although variable voice.
‘God knows,’ she said, ‘how entirely I am innocent.
But I do not pretend that my protestations should acquit
me; I rest my innocence on a plain and simple explanation
of the facts which have been adduced against me, and I
hope the character I have always borne will incline my
judges to a favourable interpretation where any
circumstance appears doubtful or suspicious.’
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She then related that, by the permission of Elizabeth,
she had passed the evening of the night on which the
murder had been committed at the house of an aunt at
Chene, a village situated at about a league from Geneva.
On her return, at about nine o’clock, she met a man who
asked her if she had seen anything of the child who was
lost. She was alarmed by this account and passed several
hours in looking for him, when the gates of Geneva were
shut, and she was forced to remain several hours of the
night in a barn belonging to a cottage, being unwilling to
call up the inhabitants, to whom she was well known.
Most of the night she spent here watching; towards
morning she believed that she slept for a few minutes;
some steps disturbed her, and she awoke. It was dawn, and
she quitted her asylum, that she might again endeavour to
find my brother. If she had gone near the spot where his
body lay, it was without her knowledge. That she had
been bewildered when questioned by the market-woman
was not surprising, since she had passed a sleepless night
and the fate of poor William was yet uncertain.
Concerning the picture she could give no account.
‘I know,’ continued the unhappy victim, ‘how heavily
and fatally this one circumstance weighs against me, but I
have no power of explaining it; and when I have
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expressed my utter ignorance, I am only left to conjecture
concerning the probabilities by which it might have been
placed in my pocket. But here also I am checked. I believe
that I have no enemy on earth, and none surely would
have been so wicked as to destroy me wantonly. Did the
murderer place it there? I know of no opportunity
afforded him for so doing; or, if I had, why should he
have stolen the jewel, to part with it again so soon?
‘I commit my cause to the justice of my judges, yet I
see no room for hope. I beg permission to have a few
witnesses examined concerning my character, and if their
testimony shall not overweigh my supposed guilt, I must
be condemned, although I would pledge my salvation on
my innocence.’
Several witnesses were called who had known her for
many years, and they spoke well of her; but fear and
hatred of the crime of which they supposed her guilty
rendered them timorous and unwilling to come forward.
Elizabeth saw even this last resource, her excellent
dispositions and irreproachable conduct, about to fail the
accused, when, although violently agitated, she desired
permission to address the court.
‘I am,’ said she, ‘the cousin of the unhappy child who
was murdered, or rather his sister, for I was educated by
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and have lived with his parents ever since and even long
before his birth. It may therefore be judged indecent in
me to come forward on this occasion, but when I see a
fellow creature about to perish through the cowardice of
her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I
may say what I know of her character. I am well
acquainted with the accused. I have lived in the same
house with her, at one time for five and at another for
nearly two years. During all that period she appeared to
me the most amiable and benevolent of human creatures.
She nursed Madame Frankenstein, my aunt, in her last
illness, with the greatest affection and care and afterwards
attended her own mother during a tedious illness, in a
manner that excited the admiration of all who knew her,
after which she again lived in my uncle’s house, where she
was beloved by all the family. She was warmly attached to
the child who is now dead and acted towards him like a
most affectionate mother. For my own part, I do not
hesitate to say that, notwithstanding all the evidence
produced against her, I believe and rely on her perfect
innocence. She had no temptation for such an action; as to
the bauble on which the chief proof rests, if she had
earnestly desired it, I should have willingly given it to her,
so much do I esteem and value her.’
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A murmur of approbation followed Elizabeth’s simple
and powerful appeal, but it was excited by her generous
interference, and not in favour of poor Justine, on whom
the public indignation was turned with renewed violence,
charging her with the blackest ingratitude. She herself
wept as Elizabeth spoke, but she did not answer. My own
agitation and anguish was extreme during the whole trial.
I believed in her innocence; I knew it. Could the demon
who had (I did not for a minute doubt) murdered my
brother also in his hellish sport have betrayed the innocent
to death and ignominy? I could not sustain the horror of
my situation, and when I perceived that the popular voice
and the countenances of the judges had already
condemned my unhappy victim, I rushed out of the court
in agony. The tortures of the accused did not equal mine;
she was sustained by innocence, but the fangs of remorse
tore my bosom and would not forgo their hold.
I passed a night of unmingled wretchedness. In the
morning I went to the court; my lips and throat were
parched. I dared not ask the fatal question, but I was
known, and the officer guessed the cause of my visit. The
ballots had been thrown; they were all black, and Justine
was condemned.
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I cannot pretend to describe what I then felt. I had
before experienced sensations of horror, and I have
endeavoured to bestow upon them adequate expressions,
but words cannot convey an idea of the heart-sickening
despair that I then endured. The person to whom I
addressed myself added that Justine had already confessed
her guilt. ‘That evidence,’ he observed, ‘was hardly
required in so glaring a case, but I am glad of it, and,
indeed, none of our judges like to condemn a criminal
upon circumstantial evidence, be it ever so decisive.’
This was strange and unexpected intelligence; what
could it mean? Had my eyes deceived me? And was I
really as mad as the whole world would believe me to be
if I disclosed the object of my suspicions? I hastened to
return home, and Elizabeth eagerly demanded the result.
‘My cousin,’ replied I, ‘it is decided as you may have
expected; all judges had rather that ten innocent should
suffer than that one guilty should escape. But she has
confessed.’
This was a dire blow to poor Elizabeth, who had relied
with firmness upon Justine’s innocence. ‘Alas!’ said she.
‘How shall I ever again believe in human goodness?
Justine, whom I loved and esteemed as my sister, how
could she put on those smiles of innocence only to betray?
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Her mild eyes seemed incapable of any severity or guile,
and yet she has committed a murder.’
Soon after we heard that the poor victim had expressed
a desire to see my cousin. My father wished her not to go
but said that he left it to her own judgment and feelings to
decide. ‘Yes,’ said Elizabeth, ‘I will go, although she is
guilty; and you, Victor, shall accompany me; I cannot go
alone.’ The idea of this visit was torture to me, yet I could
not refuse.
We entered the gloomy prison chamber and beheld
Justine sitting on some straw at the farther end; her hands
were manacled, and her head rested on her knees. She
rose on seeing us enter; and when we were left alone with
her, she threw herself at the feet of Elizabeth, weeping
bitterly. My cousin wept also.
‘Oh, Justine!’ said she. ‘Why did you rob me of my last
consolation? I relied on your innocence, and although I
was then very wretched, I was not so miserable as I am
now.’
‘And do you also believe that I am so very, very
wicked? Do you also join with my enemies to crush me,
to condemn me as a murderer?’ Her voice was suffocated
with sobs.
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‘Rise, my poor girl,’ said Elizabeth; ‘why do you kneel,
if you are innocent? I am not one of your enemies, I
believed you guiltless, notwithstanding every evidence,
until I heard that you had yourself declared your guilt.
That report, you say, is false; and be assured, dear Justine,
that nothing can shake my confidence in you for a
moment, but your own confession.’
‘I did confess, but I confessed a lie. I confessed, that I
might obtain absolution; but now that falsehood lies
heavier at my heart than all my other sins. The God of
heaven forgive me! Ever since I was condemned, my
confessor has besieged me; he threatened and menaced,
until I almost began to think that I was the monster that
he said I was. He threatened excommunication and hell
fire in my last moments if I continued obdurate. Dear
lady, I had none to support me; all looked on me as a
wretch doomed to ignominy and perdition. What could I
do? In an evil hour I subscribed to a lie; and now only am
I truly miserable.’
She paused, weeping, and then continued, ‘I thought
with horror, my sweet lady, that you should believe your
Justine, whom your blessed aunt had so highly honoured,
and whom you loved, was a creature capable of a crime
which none but the devil himself could have perpetrated.
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Dear William! dearest blessed child! I soon shall see you
again in heaven, where we shall all he happy; and that
consoles me, going as I am to suffer ignominy and death.’
‘Oh, Justine! Forgive me for having for one moment
distrusted you. Why did you confess? But do not mourn,
dear girl. Do not fear. I will proclaim, I will prove your
innocence. I will melt the stony hearts of your enemies by
my tears and prayers. You shall not die! You, my
playfellow, my companion, my sister, perish on the
scaffold! No! No! I never could survive so horrible a
misfortune.’
Justine shook her head mournfully. ‘I do not fear to
die,’ she said; ‘that pang is past. God raises my weakness
and gives me courage to endure the worst. I leave a sad
and bitter world; and if you remember me and think of
me as of one unjustly condemned, I am resigned to the
fate awaiting me. Learn from me, dear lady, to submit in
patience to the will of heaven!’
During this conversation I had retired to a corner of the
prison room, where I could conceal the horrid anguish
that possessed me. Despair! Who dared talk of that? The
poor victim, who on the morrow was to pass the awful
boundary between life and death, felt not, as I did, such
deep and bitter agony. I gnashed my teeth and ground
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them together, uttering a groan that came from my inmost
soul. Justine started. When she saw who it was, she
approached me and said, ‘Dear sir, you are very kind to
visit me; you, I hope, do not believe that I am guilty?’
I could not answer. ‘No, Justine,’ said Elizabeth; ‘he is
more convinced of your innocence than I was, for even
when he heard that you had confessed, he did not credit
it.’
‘I truly thank him. In these last moments I feel the
sincerest gratitude towards those who think of me with
kindness. How sweet is the affection of others to such a
wretch as I am! It removes more than half my misfortune,
and I feel as if I could die in peace now that my innocence
is acknowledged by you, dear lady, and your cousin.’
Thus the poor sufferer tried to comfort others and
herself. She indeed gained the resignation she desired. But
I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in
my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation.
Elizabeth also wept and was unhappy, but hers also was
the misery of innocence, which, like a cloud that passes
over the fair moon, for a while hides but cannot tarnish its
brightness. Anguish and despair had penetrated into the
core of my heart; I bore a hell within me which nothing
could extinguish. We stayed several hours with Justine,
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and it was with great difficulty that Elizabeth could tear
herself away. ‘I wish,’ cried she, ‘that I were to die with
you; I cannot live in this world of misery.’
Justine assumed an air of cheerfulness, while she with
difficulty repressed her bitter tears. She embraced Elizabeth
and said in a voice of half-suppressed emotion, ‘Farewell,
sweet lady, dearest Elizabeth, my beloved and only friend;
may heaven, in its bounty, bless and preserve you; may
this be the last misfortune that you will ever suffer! Live,
and be happy, and make others so.’
And on the morrow Justine died. Elizabeth’s heart-
rending eloquence failed to move the judges from their
settled conviction in the criminality of the saintly sufferer.
My passionate and indignant appeals were lost upon them.
And when I received their cold answers and heard the
harsh, unfeeling reasoning of these men, my purposed
avowal died away on my lips. Thus I might proclaim
myself a madman, but not revoke the sentence passed
upon my wretched victim. She perished on the scaffold as
a murderess!
From the tortures of my own heart, I turned to
contemplate the deep and voiceless grief of my Elizabeth.
This also was my doing! And my father’s woe, and the
desolation of that late so smiling home all was the work of
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my thrice-accursed hands! Ye weep, unhappy ones, but
these are not your last tears! Again shall you raise the
funeral wail, and the sound of your lamentations shall
again and again be heard! Frankenstein, your son, your
kinsman, your early, much-loved friend; he who would
spend each vital drop of blood for your sakes, who has no
thought nor sense of joy except as it is mirrored also in
your dear countenances, who would fill the air with
blessings and spend his life in serving you— he bids you
weep, to shed countless tears; happy beyond his hopes, if
thus inexorable fate be satisfied, and if the destruction
pause before the peace of the grave have succeeded to
your sad torments!
Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse,
horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain
sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first
hapless victims to my unhallowed arts.
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Chapter 9
Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after
the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of
events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which
follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear.
Justine died, she rested, and I was alive. The blood flowed
freely in my veins, but a weight of despair and remorse
pressed on my heart which nothing could remove. Sleep
fled from my eyes; I wandered like an evil spirit, for I had
committed deeds of mischief beyond description horrible,
and more, much more (I persuaded myself) was yet
behind. Yet my heart overflowed with kindness and the
love of virtue. I had begun life with benevolent intentions
and thirsted for the moment when I should put them in
practice and make myself useful to my fellow beings. Now
all was blasted; instead of that serenity of conscience which
allowed me to look back upon the past with self-
satisfaction, and from thence to gather promise of new
hopes, I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt,
which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as
no language can describe.
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This state of mind preyed upon my health, which had
perhaps never entirely recovered from the first shock it
had sustained. I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy
or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only
consolation—deep, dark, deathlike solitude.
My father observed with pain the alteration perceptible
in my disposition and habits and endeavoured by
arguments deduced from the feelings of his serene
conscience and guiltless life to inspire me with fortitude
and awaken in me the courage to dispel the dark cloud
which brooded over me. ‘Do you think, Victor,’ said he,
‘that I do not suffer also? No one could love a child more
than I loved your brother’—tears came into his eyes as he
spoke— ‘but is it not a duty to the survivors that we
should refrain from augmenting their unhappiness by an
appearance of immoderate grief? It is also a duty owed to
yourself, for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or
enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness,
without which no man is fit for society.’
This advice, although good, was totally inapplicable to
my case; I should have been the first to hide my grief and
console my friends if remorse had not mingled its
bitterness, and terror its alarm, with my other sensations.
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Now I could only answer my father with a look of despair
and endeavour to hide myself from his view.
About this time we retired to our house at Belrive.
This change was particularly agreeable to me. The shutting
of the gates regularly at ten o’clock and the impossibility
of remaining on the lake after that hour had rendered our
residence within the walls of Geneva very irksome to me.
I was now free. Often, after the rest of the family had
retired for the night, I took the boat and passed many
hours upon the water. Sometimes, with my sails set, I was
carried by the wind; and sometimes, after rowing into the
middle of the lake, I left the boat to pursue its own course
and gave way to my own miserable reflections. I was often
tempted, when all was at peace around me, and I the only
unquiet thing that wandered restless in a scene so beautiful
and heavenly—if I except some bat, or the frogs, whose
harsh and interrupted croaking was heard only when I
approached the shore—often, I say, I was tempted to
plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close
over me and my calamities forever. But I was restrained,
when I thought of the heroic and suffering Elizabeth,
whom I tenderly loved, and whose existence was bound
up in mine. I thought also of my father and surviving
brother; should I by my base desertion leave them exposed
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and unprotected to the malice of the fiend whom I had let
loose among them?
At these moments I wept bitterly and wished that peace
would revisit my mind only that I might afford them
consolation and happiness. But that could not be.
Remorse extinguished every hope. I had been the author
of unalterable evils, and I lived in daily fear lest the
monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new
wickedness. I had an obscure feeling that all was not over
and that he would still commit some signal crime, which
by its enormity should almost efface the recollection of the
past. There was always scope for fear so long as anything I
loved remained behind. My abhorrence of this fiend
cannot be conceived. When I thought of him I gnashed
my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I ardently wished
to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly
bestowed. When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my
hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation. I
would have made a pilgrimage to the highest peak of the
Andes, could I when there have precipitated him to their
base. I wished to see him again, that I might wreak the
utmost extent of abhorrence on his head and avenge the
deaths of William and Justine. Our house was the house of
mourning. My father’s health was deeply shaken by the
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horror of the recent events. Elizabeth was sad and
desponding; she no longer took delight in her ordinary
occupations; all pleasure seemed to her sacrilege toward
the dead; eternal woe and tears she then thought was the
just tribute she should pay to innocence so blasted and
destroyed. She was no longer that happy creature who in
earlier youth wandered with me on the banks of the lake
and talked with ecstasy of our future prospects. The first of
those sorrows which are sent to wean us from the earth
had visited her, and its dimming influence quenched her
dearest smiles.
‘When I reflect, my dear cousin,’ said she, ‘on the
miserable death of Justine Moritz, I no longer see the
world and its works as they before appeared to me. Before,
I looked upon the accounts of vice and injustice that I
read in books or heard from others as tales of ancient days
or imaginary evils; at least they were remote and more
familiar to reason than to the imagination; but now misery
has come home, and men appear to me as monsters
thirsting for each other’s blood. Yet I am certainly unjust.
Everybody believed that poor girl to be guilty; and if she
could have committed the crime for which she suffered,
assuredly she would have been the most depraved of
human creatures. For the sake of a few jewels, to have
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murdered the son of her benefactor and friend, a child
whom she had nursed from its birth, and appeared to love
as if it had been her own! I could not consent to the death
of any human being, but certainly I should have thought
such a creature unfit to remain in the society of men. But
she was innocent. I know, I feel she was innocent; you are
of the same opinion, and that confirms me. Alas! Victor,
when falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure
themselves of certain happiness? I feel as if I were walking
on the edge of a precipice, towards which thousands are
crowding and endeavouring to plunge me into the abyss.
William and Justine were assassinated, and the murderer
escapes; he walks about the world free, and perhaps
respected. But even if I were condemned to suffer on the
scaffold for the same crimes, I would not change places
with such a wretch.’
I listened to this discourse with the extremest agony. I,
not in deed, but in effect, was the true murderer. Elizabeth
read my anguish in my countenance, and kindly taking my
hand, said, ‘My dearest friend, you must calm yourself.
These events have affected me, God knows how deeply;
but I am not so wretched as you are. There is an
expression of despair, and sometimes of revenge, in your
countenance that makes me tremble. Dear Victor, banish
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these dark passions. Remember the friends around you,
who centre all their hopes in you. Have we lost the power
of rendering you happy? Ah! While we love, while we are
true to each other, here in this land of peace and beauty,
your native country, we may reap every tranquil
blessing— what can disturb our peace?’
And could not such words from her whom I fondly
prized before every other gift of fortune suffice to chase
away the fiend that lurked in my heart? Even as she spoke
I drew near to her, as if in terror, lest at that very moment
the destroyer had been near to rob me of her.
Thus not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty of
earth, nor of heaven, could redeem my soul from woe; the
very accents of love were ineffectual. I was encompassed
by a cloud which no beneficial influence could penetrate.
The wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs to some
untrodden brake, there to gaze upon the arrow which had
pierced it, and to die, was but a type of me.
Sometimes I could cope with the sullen despair that
overwhelmed me, but sometimes the whirlwind passions
of my soul drove me to seek, by bodily exercise and by
change of place, some relief from my intolerable
sensations. It was during an access of this kind that I
suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the
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near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the
eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my
ephemeral, because human, sorrows. My wanderings were
directed towards the valley of Chamounix. I had visited it
frequently during my boyhood. Six years had passed since
then: I was a wreck, but nought had changed in those
savage and enduring scenes.
I performed the first part of my journey on horseback. I
afterwards hired a mule, as the more sure-footed and least
liable to receive injury on these rugged roads. The
weather was fine; it was about the middle of the month of
August, nearly two months after the death of Justine, that
miserable epoch from which I dated all my woe. The
weight upon my spirit was sensibly lightened as I plunged
yet deeper in the ravine of Arve. The immense mountains
and precipices that overhung me on every side, the sound
of the river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of the
waterfalls around spoke of a power mighty as
Omnipotence—and I ceased to fear or to bend before any
being less almighty than that which had created and ruled
the elements, here displayed in their most terrific guise.
Still, as I ascended higher, the valley assumed a more
magnificent and astonishing character. Ruined castles
hanging on the precipices of piny mountains, the
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impetuous Arve, and cottages every here and there
peeping forth from among the trees formed a scene of
singular beauty. But it was augmented and rendered
sublime by the mighty Alps, whose white and shining
pyramids and domes towered above all, as belonging to
another earth, the habitations of another race of beings.
I passed the bridge of Pelissier, where the ravine, which
the river forms, opened before me, and I began to ascend
the mountain that overhangs it. Soon after, I entered the
valley of Chamounix. This valley is more wonderful and
sublime, but not so beautiful and picturesque as that of
Servox, through which I had just passed. The high and
snowy mountains were its immediate boundaries, but I
saw no more ruined castles and fertile fields. Immense
glaciers approached the road; I heard the rumbling
thunder of the falling avalanche and marked the smoke of
its passage. Mont Blanc, the supreme and magnificent
Mont Blanc, raised itself from the surrounding aiguilles,
and its tremendous dome overlooked the valley.
A tingling long-lost sense of pleasure often came across
me during this journey. Some turn in the road, some new
object suddenly perceived and recognized, reminded me
of days gone by, and were associated with the lighthearted
gaiety of boyhood. The very winds whispered in soothing
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accents, and maternal Nature bade me weep no more.
Then again the kindly influence ceased to act— I found
myself fettered again to grief and indulging in all the
misery of reflection. Then I spurred on my animal, striving
so to forget the world, my fears, and more than all,
myself—or, in a more desperate fashion, I alighted and
threw myself on the grass, weighed down by horror and
despair.
At length I arrived at the village of Chamounix.
Exhaustion succeeded to the extreme fatigue both of body
and of mind which I had endured. For a short space of
time I remained at the window watching the pallid
lightnings that played above Mont Blanc and listening to
the rushing of the Arve, which pursued its noisy way
beneath. The same lulling sounds acted as a lullaby to my
too keen sensations; when I placed my head upon my
pillow, sleep crept over me; I felt it as it came and blessed
the giver of oblivion.
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Chapter 10
I spent the following day roaming through the valley. I
stood beside the sources of the Arveiron, which take their
rise in a glacier, that with slow pace is advancing down
from the summit of the hills to barricade the valley. The
abrupt sides of vast mountains were before me; the icy
wall of the glacier overhung me; a few shattered pines
were scattered around; and the solemn silence of this
glorious presence-chamber of imperial nature was broken
only by the brawling waves or the fall of some vast
fragment, the thunder sound of the avalanche or the
cracking, reverberated along the mountains, of the
accumulated ice, which, through the silent working of
immutable laws, was ever and anon rent and torn, as if it
had been but a plaything in their hands. These sublime
and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest
consolation that I was capable of receiving. They elevated
me from all littleness of feeling, and although they did not
remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillized it. In
some degree, also, they diverted my mind from the
thoughts over which it had brooded for the last month. I
retired to rest at night; my slumbers, as it were, waited on
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and ministered to by the assemblance of grand shapes
which I had contemplated during the day. They
congregated round me; the unstained snowy mountaintop,
the glittering pinnacle, the pine woods, and ragged bare
ravine, the eagle, soaring amidst the clouds— they all
gathered round me and bade me be at peace.
Where had they fled when the next morning I awoke?
All of soul- inspiriting fled with sleep, and dark
melancholy clouded every thought. The rain was pouring
in torrents, and thick mists hid the summits of the
mountains, so that I even saw not the faces of those
mighty friends. Still I would penetrate their misty veil and
seek them in their cloudy retreats. What were rain and
storm to me? My mule was brought to the door, and I
resolved to ascend to the summit of Montanvert. I
remembered the effect that the view of the tremendous
and ever-moving glacier had produced upon my mind
when I first saw it. It had then filled me with a sublime
ecstasy that gave wings to the soul and allowed it to soar
from the obscure world to light and joy. The sight of the
awful and majestic in nature had indeed always the effect
of solemnizing my mind and causing me to forget the
passing cares of life. I determined to go without a guide,
for I was well acquainted with the path, and the presence
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of another would destroy the solitary grandeur of the
scene.
The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into
continual and short windings, which enable you to
surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain. It is a
scene terrifically desolate. In a thousand spots the traces of
the winter avalanche may be perceived, where trees lie
broken and strewed on the ground, some entirely
destroyed, others bent, leaning upon the jutting rocks of
the mountain or transversely upon other trees. The path,
as you ascend nigher, is intersected by ravines of snow,
down which stones continually roll from above; one of
them is particularly dangerous, as the slightest sound, such
as even speaking in a loud voice, produces a concussion of
air sufficient to draw destruction upon the head of the
speaker. The pines are not tall or luxuriant, but they are
sombre and add an air of severity to the scene. I looked on
the valley beneath; vast mists were rising from the rivers
which ran through it and curling in thick wreaths around
the opposite mountains, whose summits were hid in the
uniform clouds, while rain poured from the dark sky and
added to the melancholy impression I received from the
objects around me. Alas! Why does man boast of
sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only
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renders them more necessary beings. If our impulses were
confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly
free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and
a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.
We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep.
We rise; one wand’ring thought pollutes the day.
We feel, conceive, or reason; laugh or weep,
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away;
It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free.
Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but mutability!
It was nearly noon when I arrived at the top of the
ascent. For some time I sat upon the rock that overlooks
the sea of ice. A mist covered both that and the
surrounding mountains. Presently a breeze dissipated the
cloud, and I descended upon the glacier. The surface is
very uneven, rising like the waves of a troubled sea,
descending low, and interspersed by rifts that sink deep.
The field of ice is almost a league in width, but I spent
nearly two hours in crossing it. The opposite mountain is
a bare perpendicular rock. From the side where I now
stood Montanvert was exactly opposite, at the distance of a
league; and above it rose Mont Blanc, in awful majesty. I
remained in a recess of the rock, gazing on this wonderful
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and stupendous scene. The sea, or rather the vast river of
ice, wound among its dependent mountains, whose aerial
summits hung over its recesses. Their icy and glittering
peaks shone in the sunlight over the clouds. My heart,
which was before sorrowful, now swelled with something
like joy; I exclaimed, ‘Wandering spirits, if indeed ye
wander, and do not rest in your narrow beds, allow me
this faint happiness, or take me, as your companion, away
from the joys of life.’
As I said this I suddenly beheld the figure of a man, at
some distance, advancing towards me with superhuman
speed. He bounded over the crevices in the ice, among
which I had walked with caution; his stature, also, as he
approached, seemed to exceed that of man. I was troubled;
a mist came over my eyes, and I felt a faintness seize me,
but I was quickly restored by the cold gale of the
mountains. I perceived, as the shape came nearer (sight
tremendous and abhorred!) that it was the wretch whom I
had created. I trembled with rage and horror, resolving to
wait his approach and then close with him in mortal
combat. He approached; his countenance bespoke bitter
anguish, combined with disdain and malignity, while its
unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for
human eyes. But I scarcely observed this; rage and hatred
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had at first deprived me of utterance, and I recovered only
to overwhelm him with words expressive of furious
detestation and contempt.
‘Devil,’ I exclaimed, ‘do you dare approach me? And
do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked
on your miserable head? Begone, vile insect! Or rather,
stay, that I may trample you to dust! And, oh! That I
could, with the extinction of your miserable existence,
restore those victims whom you have so diabolically
murdered!’
‘I expected this reception,’ said the daemon. ‘All men
hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am
miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator,
detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art
bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of
us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with
life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine
towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply
with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace;
but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be
satiated with the blood of your remaining friends.’
‘Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of
hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched
devil! You reproach me with your creation, come on,
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then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so
negligently bestowed.’
My rage was without bounds; I sprang on him,
impelled by all the feelings which can arm one being
against the existence of another.
He easily eluded me and said—
‘Be calm! I entreat you to hear me before you give vent
to your hatred on my devoted head. Have I not suffered
enough, that you seek to increase my misery? Life,
although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is
dear to me, and I will defend it. Remember, thou hast
made me more powerful than thyself; my height is
superior to thine, my joints more supple. But I will not be
tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy
creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural
lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which
thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to
every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy
justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due.
Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy
Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest
from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from
which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent
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and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I
shall again be virtuous.’
‘Begone! I will not hear you. There can be no
community between you and me; we are enemies.
Begone, or let us try our strength in a fight, in which one
must fall.’
‘How can I move thee? Will no entreaties cause thee to
turn a favourable eye upon thy creature, who implores thy
goodness and compassion? Believe me, Frankenstein, I was
benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but
am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor
me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures,
who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me. The
desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. I have
wandered here many days; the caves of ice, which I only
do not fear, are a dwelling to me, and the only one which
man does not grudge. These bleak skies I hail, for they are
kinder to me than your fellow beings. If the multitude of
mankind knew of my existence, they would do as you do,
and arm themselves for my destruction. Shall I not then
hate them who abhor me? I will keep no terms with my
enemies. I am miserable, and they shall share my
wretchedness. Yet it is in your power to recompense me,
and deliver them from an evil which it only remains for
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you to make so great, that not only you and your family,
but thousands of others, shall be swallowed up in the
whirlwinds of its rage. Let your compassion be moved,
and do not disdain me. Listen to my tale; when you have
heard that, abandon or commiserate me, as you shall judge
that I deserve. But hear me. The guilty are allowed, by
human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own
defence before they are condemned. Listen to me,
Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder, and yet you
would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own
creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man! Yet I ask
you not to spare me; listen to me, and then, if you can,
and if you will, destroy the work of your hands.’
‘Why do you call to my remembrance,’ I rejoined,
‘circumstances of which I shudder to reflect, that I have
been the miserable origin and author? Cursed be the day,
abhorred devil, in which you first saw light! Cursed
(although I curse myself) be the hands that formed you!
You have made me wretched beyond expression. You
have left me no power to consider whether I am just to
you or not. Begone! Relieve me from the sight of your
detested form.’
‘Thus I relieve thee, my creator,’ he said, and placed his
hated hands before my eyes, which I flung from me with
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violence; ‘thus I take from thee a sight which you abhor.
Still thou canst listen to me and grant me thy compassion.
By the virtues that I once possessed, I demand this from
you. Hear my tale; it is long and strange, and the
temperature of this place is not fitting to your fine
sensations; come to the hut upon the mountain. The sun
is yet high in the heavens; before it descends to hide itself
behind your snowy precipices and illuminate another
world, you will have heard my story and can decide. On
you it rests, whether I quit forever the neighbourhood of
man and lead a harmless life, or become the scourge of
your fellow creatures and the author of your own speedy
ruin.’
As he said this he led the way across the ice; I followed.
My heart was full, and I did not answer him, but as I
proceeded, I weighed the various arguments that he had
used and determined at least to listen to his tale. I was
partly urged by curiosity, and compassion confirmed my
resolution. I had hitherto supposed him to be the
murderer of my brother, and I eagerly sought a
confirmation or denial of this opinion. For the first time,
also, I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature
were, and that I ought to render him happy before I
complained of his wickedness. These motives urged me to
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comply with his demand. We crossed the ice, therefore,
and ascended the opposite rock. The air was cold, and the
rain again began to descend; we entered the hut, the fiend
with an air of exultation, I with a heavy heart and
depressed spirits. But I consented to listen, and seating
myself by the fire which my odious companion had
lighted, he thus began his tale.
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Chapter 11
‘It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the
original era of my being; all the events of that period
appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of
sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at
the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I
learned to distinguish between the operations of my
various senses. By degrees, I remember, a stronger light
pressed upon my nerves, so that I was obliged to shut my
eyes. Darkness then came over me and troubled me, but
hardly had I felt this when, by opening my eyes, as I now
suppose, the light poured in upon me again. I walked and,
I believe, descended, but I presently found a great
alteration in my sensations. Before, dark and opaque
bodies had surrounded me, impervious to my touch or
sight; but I now found that I could wander on at liberty,
with no obstacles which I could not either surmount or
avoid. The light became more and more oppressive to me,
and the heat wearying me as I walked, I sought a place
where I could receive shade. This was the forest near
Ingolstadt; and here I lay by the side of a brook resting
from my fatigue, until I felt tormented by hunger and
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thirst. This roused me from my nearly dormant state, and I
ate some berries which I found hanging on the trees or
lying on the ground. I slaked my thirst at the brook, and
then lying down, was overcome by sleep.
‘It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half
frightened, as it were, instinctively, finding myself so
desolate. Before I had quitted your apartment, on a
sensation of cold, I had covered myself with some clothes,
but these were insufficient to secure me from the dews of
night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew,
and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me
on all sides, I sat down and wept.
‘Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens and gave me
a sensation of pleasure. I started up and beheld a radiant
form rise from among the trees.* [*The moon] I gazed
with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly, but it
enlightened my path, and I again went out in search of
berries. I was still cold when under one of the trees I
found a huge cloak, with which I covered myself, and sat
down upon the ground. No distinct ideas occupied my
mind; all was confused. I felt light, and hunger, and thirst,
and darkness; innumerable sounds rang in my ears, and on
all sides various scents saluted me; the only object that I
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could distinguish was the bright moon, and I fixed my
eyes on that with pleasure.
‘Several changes of day and night passed, and the orb of
night had greatly lessened, when I began to distinguish my
sensations from each other. I gradually saw plainly the
clear stream that supplied me with drink and the trees that
shaded me with their foliage. I was delighted when I first
discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my
ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged
animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes.
I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms
that surrounded me and to perceive the boundaries of the
radiant roof of light which canopied me. Sometimes I
tried to imitate the pleasant songs of the birds but was
unable. Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in
my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds
which broke from me frightened me into silence again.
‘The moon had disappeared from the night, and again,
with a lessened form, showed itself, while I still remained
in the forest. My sensations had by this time become
distinct, and my mind received every day additional ideas.
My eyes became accustomed to the light and to perceive
objects in their right forms; I distinguished the insect from
the herb, and by degrees, one herb from another. I found
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that the sparrow uttered none but harsh notes, whilst those
of the blackbird and thrush were sweet and enticing.
‘One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire
which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was
overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from
it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but
quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange,
I thought, that the same cause should produce such
opposite effects! I examined the materials of the fire, and
to my joy found it to be composed of wood. I quickly
collected some branches, but they were wet and would
not burn. I was pained at this and sat still watching the
operation of the fire. The wet wood which I had placed
near the heat dried and itself became inflamed. I reflected
on this, and by touching the various branches, I discovered
the cause and busied myself in collecting a great quantity
of wood, that I might dry it and have a plentiful supply of
fire. When night came on and brought sleep with it, I was
in the greatest fear lest my fire should be extinguished. I
covered it carefully with dry wood and leaves and placed
wet branches upon it; and then, spreading my cloak, I lay
on the ground and sank into sleep.
‘It was morning when I awoke, and my first care was to
visit the fire. I uncovered it, and a gentle breeze quickly
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fanned it into a flame. I observed this also and contrived a
fan of branches, which roused the embers when they were
nearly extinguished. When night came again I found, with
pleasure, that the fire gave light as well as heat and that the
discovery of this element was useful to me in my food, for
I found some of the offals that the travellers had left had
been roasted, and tasted much more savoury than the
berries I gathered from the trees. I tried, therefore, to dress
my food in the same manner, placing it on the live
embers. I found that the berries were spoiled by this
operation, and the nuts and roots much improved.
‘Food, however, became scarce, and I often spent the
whole day searching in vain for a few acorns to assuage the
pangs of hunger. When I found this, I resolved to quit the
place that I had hitherto inhabited, to seek for one where
the few wants I experienced would be more easily
satisfied. In this emigration I exceedingly lamented the loss
of the fire which I had obtained through accident and
knew not how to reproduce it. I gave several hours to the
serious consideration of this difficulty, but I was obliged to
relinquish all attempt to supply it, and wrapping myself up
in my cloak, I struck across the wood towards the setting
sun. I passed three days in these rambles and at length
discovered the open country. A great fall of snow had
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taken place the night before, and the fields were of one
uniform white; the appearance was disconsolate, and I
found my feet chilled by the cold damp substance that
covered the ground.
‘It was about seven in the morning, and I longed to
obtain food and shelter; at length I perceived a small hut,
on a rising ground, which had doubtless been built for the
convenience of some shepherd. This was a new sight to
me, and I examined the structure with great curiosity.
Finding the door open, I entered. An old man sat in it,
near a fire, over which he was preparing his breakfast. He
turned on hearing a noise, and perceiving me, shrieked
loudly, and quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a
speed of which his debilitated form hardly appeared
capable. His appearance, different from any I had ever
before seen, and his flight somewhat surprised me. But I
was enchanted by the appearance of the hut; here the
snow and rain could not penetrate; the ground was dry;
and it presented to me then as exquisite and divine a
retreat as Pandemonium appeared to the demons of hell
after their sufferings in the lake of fire. I greedily devoured
the remnants of the shepherd’s breakfast, which consisted
of bread, cheese, milk, and wine; the latter, however, I did
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not like. Then, overcome by fatigue, I lay down among
some straw and fell asleep.
‘It was noon when I awoke, and allured by the warmth
of the sun, which shone brightly on the white ground, I
determined to recommence my travels; and, depositing the
remains of the peasant’s breakfast in a wallet I found, I
proceeded across the fields for several hours, until at sunset
I arrived at a village. How miraculous did this appear! the
huts, the neater cottages, and stately houses engaged my
admiration by turns. The vegetables in the gardens, the
milk and cheese that I saw placed at the windows of some
of the cottages, allured my appetite. One of the best of
these I entered, but I had hardly placed my foot within the
door before the children shrieked, and one of the women
fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some
attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many
other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open
country and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite
bare, and making a wretched appearance after the palaces I
had beheld in the village. This hovel however, joined a
cottage of a neat and pleasant appearance, but after my late
dearly bought experience, I dared not enter it. My place of
refuge was constructed of wood, but so low that I could
with difficulty sit upright in it. No wood, however, was
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placed on the earth, which formed the floor, but it was
dry; and although the wind entered it by innumerable
chinks, I found it an agreeable asylum from the snow and
rain.
‘Here, then, I retreated and lay down happy to have
found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency
of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man. As
soon as morning dawned I crept from my kennel, that I
might view the adjacent cottage and discover if I could
remain in the habitation I had found. It was situated
against the back of the cottage and surrounded on the sides
which were exposed by a pig sty and a clear pool of water.
One part was open, and by that I had crept in; but now I
covered every crevice by which I might be perceived with
stones and wood, yet in such a manner that I might move
them on occasion to pass out; all the light I enjoyed came
through the sty, and that was sufficient for me.
‘Having thus arranged my dwelling and carpeted it with
clean straw, I retired, for I saw the figure of a man at a
distance, and I remembered too well my treatment the
night before to trust myself in his power. I had first,
however, provided for my sustenance for that day by a loaf
of coarse bread, which I purloined, and a cup with which
I could drink more conveniently than from my hand of
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the pure water which flowed by my retreat. The floor was
a little raised, so that it was kept perfectly dry, and by its
vicinity to the chimney of the cottage it was tolerably
warm.
‘Being thus provided, I resolved to reside in this hovel
until something should occur which might alter my
determination. It was indeed a paradise compared to the
bleak forest, my former residence, the rain-dropping
branches, and dank earth. I ate my breakfast with pleasure
and was about to remove a plank to procure myself a little
water when I heard a step, and looking through a small
chink, I beheld a young creature, with a pail on her head,
passing before my hovel. The girl was young and of gentle
demeanour, unlike what I have since found cottagers and
farmhouse servants to be. Yet she was meanly dressed, a
coarse blue petticoat and a linen jacket being her only
garb; her fair hair was plaited but not adorned: she looked
patient yet sad. I lost sight of her, and in about a quarter of
an hour she returned bearing the pail, which was now
partly filled with milk. As she walked along, seemingly
incommoded by the burden, a young man met her, whose
countenance expressed a deeper despondence. Uttering a
few sounds with an air of melancholy, he took the pail
from her head and bore it to the cottage himself. She
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followed, and they disappeared. Presently I saw the young
man again, with some tools in his hand, cross the field
behind the cottage; and the girl was also busied, sometimes
in the house and sometimes in the yard.
‘On examining my dwelling, I found that one of the
windows of the cottage had formerly occupied a part of it,
but the panes had been filled up with wood. In one of
these was a small and almost imperceptible chink through
which the eye could just penetrate. Through this crevice a
small room was visible, whitewashed and clean but very
bare of furniture. In one corner, near a small fire, sat an
old man, leaning his head on his hands in a disconsolate
attitude. The young girl was occupied in arranging the
cottage; but presently she took something out of a drawer,
which employed her hands, and she sat down beside the
old man, who, taking up an instrument, began to play and
to produce sounds sweeter than the voice of the thrush or
the nightingale. It was a lovely sight, even to me, poor
wretch who had never beheld aught beautiful before. The
silver hair and benevolent countenance of the aged
cottager won my reverence, while the gentle manners of
the girl enticed my love. He played a sweet mournful air
which I perceived drew tears from the eyes of his amiable
companion, of which the old man took no notice, until
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she sobbed audibly; he then pronounced a few sounds, and
the fair creature, leaving her work, knelt at his feet. He
raised her and smiled with such kindness and affection that
I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature;
they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had
never before experienced, either from hunger or cold,
warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window,
unable to bear these emotions.
‘Soon after this the young man returned, bearing on his
shoulders a load of wood. The girl met him at the door,
helped to relieve him of his burden, and taking some of
the fuel into the cottage, placed it on the fire; then she and
the youth went apart into a nook of the cottage, and he
showed her a large loaf and a piece of cheese. She seemed
pleased and went into the garden for some roots and
plants, which she placed in water, and then upon the fire.
She afterwards continued her work, whilst the young man
went into the garden and appeared busily employed in
digging and pulling up roots. After he had been employed
thus about an hour, the young woman joined him and
they entered the cottage together.
‘The old man had, in the meantime, been pensive, but
on the appearance of his companions he assumed a more
cheerful air, and they sat down to eat. The meal was
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quickly dispatched. The young woman was again
occupied in arranging the cottage, the old man walked
before the cottage in the sun for a few minutes, leaning on
the arm of the youth. Nothing could exceed in beauty the
contrast between these two excellent creatures. One was
old, with silver hairs and a countenance beaming with
benevolence and love; the younger was slight and graceful
in his figure, and his features were moulded with the finest
symmetry, yet his eyes and attitude expressed the utmost
sadness and despondency. The old man returned to the
cottage, and the youth, with tools different from those he
had used in the morning, directed his steps across the
fields.
‘Night quickly shut in, but to my extreme wonder, I
found that the cottagers had a means of prolonging light
by the use of tapers, and was delighted to find that the
setting of the sun did not put an end to the pleasure I
experienced in watching my human neighbours. In the
evening the young girl and her companion were
employed in various occupations which I did not
understand; and the old man again took up the instrument
which produced the divine sounds that had enchanted me
in the morning. So soon as he had finished, the youth
began, not to play, but to utter sounds that were
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monotonous, and neither resembling the harmony of the
old man’s instrument nor the songs of the birds; I since
found that he read aloud, but at that time I knew nothing
of the science of words or letters.
‘The family, after having been thus occupied for a short
time, extinguished their lights and retired, as I
conjectured, to rest.’
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Chapter 12
‘I lay on my straw, but I could not sleep. I thought of
the occurrences of the day. What chiefly struck me was
the gentle manners of these people, and I longed to join
them, but dared not. I remembered too well the treatment
I had suffered the night before from the barbarous
villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct I
might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the
present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching and
endeavouring to discover the motives which influenced
their actions.
‘The cottagers arose the next morning before the sun.
The young woman arranged the cottage and prepared the
food, and the youth departed after the first meal.
‘This day was passed in the same routine as that which
preceded it. The young man was constantly employed out
of doors, and the girl in various laborious occupations
within. The old man, whom I soon perceived to be blind,
employed his leisure hours on his instrument or in
contemplation. Nothing could exceed the love and respect
which the younger cottagers exhibited towards their
venerable companion. They performed towards him every
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little office of affection and duty with gentleness, and he
rewarded them by his benevolent smiles.
‘They were not entirely happy. The young man and his
companion often went apart and appeared to weep. I saw
no cause for their unhappiness, but I was deeply affected
by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less
strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be
wretched. Yet why were these gentle beings unhappy?
They possessed a delightful house (for such it was in my
eyes) and every luxury; they had a fire to warm them
when chill and delicious viands when hungry; they were
dressed in excellent clothes; and, still more, they enjoyed
one another’s company and speech, interchanging each
day looks of affection and kindness. What did their tears
imply? Did they really express pain? I was at first unable to
solve these questions, but perpetual attention and time
explained to me many appearances which were at first
enigmatic.
‘A considerable period elapsed before I discovered one
of the causes of the uneasiness of this amiable family: it was
poverty, and they suffered that evil in a very distressing
degree. Their nourishment consisted entirely of the
vegetables of their garden and the milk of one cow, which
gave very little during the winter, when its masters could
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scarcely procure food to support it. They often, I believe,
suffered the pangs of hunger very poignantly, especially
the two younger cottagers, for several times they placed
food before the old man when they reserved none for
themselves.
‘This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been
accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store
for my own consumption, but when I found that in doing
this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained and
satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots which I
gathered from a neighbouring wood.
‘I discovered also another means through which I was
enabled to assist their labours. I found that the youth spent
a great part of each day in collecting wood for the family
fire, and during the night I often took his tools, the use of
which I quickly discovered, and brought home firing
sufficient for the consumption of several days.
‘I remember, the first time that I did this, the young
woman, when she opened the door in the morning,
appeared greatly astonished on seeing a great pile of wood
on the outside. She uttered some words in a loud voice,
and the youth joined her, who also expressed surprise. I
observed, with pleasure, that he did not go to the forest
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that day, but spent it in repairing the cottage and
cultivating the garden.
‘By degrees I made a discovery of still greater moment.
I found that these people possessed a method of
communicating their experience and feelings to one
another by articulate sounds. I perceived that the words
they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or
sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers.
This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired
to become acquainted with it. But I was baffled in every
attempt I made for this purpose. Their pronunciation was
quick, and the words they uttered, not having any
apparent connection with visible objects, I was unable to
discover any clue by which I could unravel the mystery of
their reference. By great application, however, and after
having remained during the space of several revolutions of
the moon in my hovel, I discovered the names that were
given to some of the most familiar objects of discourse; I
learned and applied the words, ‘fire,’ ‘milk,’ ‘bread,’ and
‘wood.’ I learned also the names of the cottagers
themselves. The youth and his companion had each of
them several names, but the old man had only one, which
was ‘father.’ The girl was called ‘sister’ or ‘Agatha,’ and the
youth ‘Felix,’ ‘brother,’ or ‘son.’ I cannot describe the
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delight I felt when I learned the ideas appropriated to each
of these sounds and was able to pronounce them. I
distinguished several other words without being able as yet
to understand or apply them, such as ‘good,’ ‘dearest,’
unhappy.
‘I spent the winter in this manner. The gentle manners
and beauty of the cottagers greatly endeared them to me;
when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they
rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys. I saw few human
beings besides them, and if any other happened to enter
the cottage, their harsh manners and rude gait only
enhanced to me the superior accomplishments of my
friends. The old man, I could perceive, often endeavoured
to encourage his children, as sometimes I found that he
called them, to cast off their melancholy. He would talk in
a cheerful accent, with an expression of goodness that
bestowed pleasure even upon me. Agatha listened with
respect, her eyes sometimes filled with tears, which she
endeavoured to wipe away unperceived; but I generally
found that her countenance and tone were more cheerful
after having listened to the exhortations of her father. It
was not thus with Felix. He was always the saddest of the
group, and even to my unpractised senses, he appeared to
have suffered more deeply than his friends. But if his
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countenance was more sorrowful, his voice was more
cheerful than that of his sister, especially when he
addressed the old man.
‘I could mention innumerable instances which,
although slight, marked the dispositions of these amiable
cottagers. In the midst of poverty and want, Felix carried
with pleasure to his sister the first little white flower that
peeped out from beneath the snowy ground. Early in the
morning, before she had risen, he cleared away the snow
that obstructed her path to the milk-house, drew water
from the well, and brought the wood from the outhouse,
where, to his perpetual astonishment, he found his store
always replenished by an invisible hand. In the day, I
believe, he worked sometimes for a neighbouring farmer,
because he often went forth and did not return until
dinner, yet brought no wood with him. At other times he
worked in the garden, but as there was little to do in the
frosty season, he read to the old man and Agatha.
‘This reading had puzzled me extremely at first, but by
degrees I discovered that he uttered many of the same
sounds when he read as when he talked. I conjectured,
therefore, that he found on the paper signs for speech
which he understood, and I ardently longed to
comprehend these also; but how was that possible when I
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did not even understand the sounds for which they stood
as signs? I improved, however, sensibly in this science, but
not sufficiently to follow up any kind of conversation,
although I applied my whole mind to the endeavour, for I
easily perceived that, although I eagerly longed to discover
myself to the cottagers, I ought not to make the attempt
until I had first become master of their language, which
knowledge might enable me to make them overlook the
deformity of my figure, for with this also the contrast
perpetually presented to my eyes had made me acquainted.
‘I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers—their
grace, beauty, and delicate complexions; but how was I
terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At
first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I
who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully
convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I
was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and
mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal
effects of this miserable deformity.
‘As the sun became warmer and the light of day longer,
the snow vanished, and I beheld the bare trees and the
black earth. From this time Felix was more employed, and
the heart-moving indications of impending famine
disappeared. Their food, as I afterwards found, was coarse,
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but it was wholesome; and they procured a sufficiency of
it. Several new kinds of plants sprang up in the garden,
which they dressed; and these signs of comfort increased
daily as the season advanced.
‘The old man, leaning on his son, walked each day at
noon, when it did not rain, as I found it was called when
the heavens poured forth its waters. This frequently took
place, but a high wind quickly dried the earth, and the
season became far more pleasant than it had been.
‘My mode of life in my hovel was uniform. During the
morning I attended the motions of the cottagers, and
when they were dispersed in various occupations, I slept;
the remainder of the day was spent in observing my
friends. When they had retired to rest, if there was any
moon or the night was star-light, I went into the woods
and collected my own food and fuel for the cottage.
When I returned, as often as it was necessary, I cleared
their path from the snow and performed those offices that
I had seen done by Felix. I afterwards found that these
labours, performed by an invisible hand, greatly astonished
them; and once or twice I heard them, on these occasions,
utter the words ‘good spirit,’ ‘wonderful’; but I did not
then understand the signification of these terms.
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‘My thoughts now became more active, and I longed
to discover the motives and feelings of these lovely
creatures; I was inquisitive to know why Felix appeared so
miserable and Agatha so sad. I thought (foolish wretch!)
that it might be in my power to restore happiness to these
deserving people. When I slept or was absent, the forms of
the venerable blind father, the gentle Agatha, and the
excellent Felix flitted before me. I looked upon them as
superior beings who would be the arbiters of my future
destiny. I formed in my imagination a thousand pictures of
presenting myself to them, and their reception of me. I
imagined that they would be disgusted, until, by my gentle
demeanour and conciliating words, I should first win their
favour and afterwards their love.
‘These thoughts exhilarated me and led me to apply
with fresh ardour to the acquiring the art of language. My
organs were indeed harsh, but supple; and although my
voice was very unlike the soft music of their tones, yet I
pronounced such words as I understood with tolerable
ease. It was as the ass and the lap-dog; yet surely the gentle
ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his
manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows
and execration.
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‘The pleasant showers and genial warmth of spring
greatly altered the aspect of the earth. Men who before
this change seemed to have been hid in caves dispersed
themselves and were employed in various arts of
cultivation. The birds sang in more cheerful notes, and the
leaves began to bud forth on the trees. Happy, happy
earth! Fit habitation for gods, which, so short a time
before, was bleak, damp, and unwholesome. My spirits
were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the
past was blotted from my memory, the present was
tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and
anticipations of joy.’
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Chapter 13
‘I now hasten to the more moving part of my story. I
shall relate events that impressed me with feelings which,
from what I had been, have made me what I am.
‘Spring advanced rapidly; the weather became fine and
the skies cloudless. It surprised me that what before was
desert and gloomy should now bloom with the most
beautiful flowers and verdure. My senses were gratified
and refreshed by a thousand scents of delight and a
thousand sights of beauty.
‘It was on one of these days, when my cottagers
periodically rested from labour—the old man played on
his guitar, and the children listened to him—that I
observed the countenance of Felix was melancholy
beyond expression; he sighed frequently, and once his
father paused in his music, and I conjectured by his
manner that he inquired the cause of his son’s sorrow.
Felix replied in a cheerful accent, and the old man was
recommencing his music when someone tapped at the
door.
‘It was a lady on horseback, accompanied by a country-
man as a guide. The lady was dressed in a dark suit and
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covered with a thick black veil. Agatha asked a question,
to which the stranger only replied by pronouncing, in a
sweet accent, the name of Felix. Her voice was musical
but unlike that of either of my friends. On hearing this
word, Felix came up hastily to the lady, who, when she
saw him, threw up her veil, and I beheld a countenance of
angelic beauty and expression. Her hair of a shining raven
black, and curiously braided; her eyes were dark, but
gentle, although animated; her features of a regular
proportion, and her complexion wondrously fair, each
cheek tinged with a lovely pink.
‘Felix seemed ravished with delight when he saw her,
every trait of sorrow vanished from his face, and it
instantly expressed a degree of ecstatic joy, of which I
could hardly have believed it capable; his eyes sparkled, as
his cheek flushed with pleasure; and at that moment I
thought him as beautiful as the stranger. She appeared
affected by different feelings; wiping a few tears from her
lovely eyes, she held out her hand to Felix, who kissed it
rapturously and called her, as well as I could distinguish,
his sweet Arabian. She did not appear to understand him,
but smiled. He assisted her to dismount, and dismissing her
guide, conducted her into the cottage. Some conversation
took place between him and his father, and the young
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stranger knelt at the old man’s feet and would have kissed
his hand, but he raised her and embraced her
affectionately.
‘I soon perceived that although the stranger uttered
articulate sounds and appeared to have a language of her
own, she was neither understood by nor herself
understood the cottagers. They made many signs which I
did not comprehend, but I saw that her presence diffused
gladness through the cottage, dispelling their sorrow as the
sun dissipates the morning mists. Felix seemed peculiarly
happy and with smiles of delight welcomed his Arabian.
Agatha, the ever-gentle Agatha, kissed the hands of the
lovely stranger, and pointing to her brother, made signs
which appeared to me to mean that he had been sorrowful
until she came. Some hours passed thus, while they, by
their countenances, expressed joy, the cause of which I did
not comprehend. Presently I found, by the frequent
recurrence of some sound which the stranger repeated
after them, that she was endeavouring to learn their
language; and the idea instantly occurred to me that I
should make use of the same instructions to the same end.
The stranger learned about twenty words at the first
lesson; most of them, indeed, were those which I had
before understood, but I profited by the others.
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‘As night came on, Agatha and the Arabian retired
early. When they separated Felix kissed the hand of the
stranger and said, ‘Good night sweet Safie.’ He sat up
much longer, conversing with his father, and by the
frequent repetition of her name I conjectured that their
lovely guest was the subject of their conversation. I
ardently desired to understand them, and bent every
faculty towards that purpose, but found it utterly
impossible.
‘The next morning Felix went out to his work, and
after the usual occupations of Agatha were finished, the
Arabian sat at the feet of the old man, and taking his
guitar, played some airs so entrancingly beautiful that they
at once drew tears of sorrow and delight from my eyes.
She sang, and her voice flowed in a rich cadence, swelling
or dying away like a nightingale of the woods.
‘When she had finished, she gave the guitar to Agatha,
who at first declined it. She played a simple air, and her
voice accompanied it in sweet accents, but unlike the
wondrous strain of the stranger. The old man appeared
enraptured and said some words which Agatha
endeavoured to explain to Safie, and by which he
appeared to wish to express that she bestowed on him the
greatest delight by her music.
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‘The days now passed as peaceably as before, with the
sole alteration that joy had taken place of sadness in the
countenances of my friends. Safie was always gay and
happy; she and I improved rapidly in the knowledge of
language, so that in two months I began to comprehend
most of the words uttered by my protectors.
‘In the meanwhile also the black ground was covered
with herbage, and the green banks interspersed with
innumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the eyes, stars
of pale radiance among the moonlight woods; the sun
became warmer, the nights clear and balmy; and my
nocturnal rambles were an extreme pleasure to me,
although they were considerably shortened by the late
setting and early rising of the sun, for I never ventured
abroad during daylight, fearful of meeting with the same
treatment I had formerly endured in the first village which
I entered.
‘My days were spent in close attention, that I might
more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I
improved more rapidly than the Arabian, who understood
very little and conversed in broken accents, whilst I
comprehended and could imitate almost every word that
was spoken.
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‘While I improved in speech, I also learned the science
of letters as it was taught to the stranger, and this opened
before me a wide field for wonder and delight.
‘The book from which Felix instructed Safie was
Volney’s Ruins of Empires. I should not have understood
the purport of this book had not Felix, in reading it, given
very minute explanations. He had chosen this work, he
said, because the declamatory style was framed in imitation
of the Eastern authors. Through this work I obtained a
cursory knowledge of history and a view of the several
empires at present existing in the world; it gave me an
insight into the manners, governments, and religions of
the different nations of the earth. I heard of the slothful
Asiatics, of the stupendous genius and mental activity of
the Grecians, of the wars and wonderful virtue of the early
Romans—of their subsequent degenerating—of the
decline of that mighty empire, of chivalry, Christianity,
and kings. I heard of the discovery of the American
hemisphere and wept with Safie over the hapless fate of its
original inhabitants.
‘These wonderful narrations inspired me with strange
feelings. Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so
virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He
appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and
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at another as all that can be conceived of noble and
godlike. To be a great and virtuous man appeared the
highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base
and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the
lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of
the blind mole or harmless worm. For a long time I could
not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his
fellow, or even why there were laws and governments;
but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my
wonder ceased and I turned away with disgust and
loathing.
‘Every conversation of the cottagers now opened new
wonders to me. While I listened to the instructions which
Felix bestowed upon the Arabian, the strange system of
human society was explained to me. I heard of the
division of property, of immense wealth and squalid
poverty, of rank, descent, and noble blood.
‘The words induced me to turn towards myself. I
learned that the possessions most esteemed by your fellow
creatures were high and unsullied descent united with
riches. A man might be respected with only one of these
advantages, but without either he was considered, except
in very rare instances, as a vagabond and a slave, doomed
to waste his powers for the profits of the chosen few! And
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what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely
ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no
friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a
figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even
of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they and
could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat
and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far
exceeded theirs. When I looked around I saw and heard of
none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the
earth, from which all men fled and whom all men
disowned?
‘I cannot describe to you the agony that these
reflections inflicted upon me; I tried to dispel them, but
sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had
forever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt
beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!
‘Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the
mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the
rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and
feeling, but I learned that there was but one means to
overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death—a
state which I feared yet did not understand. I admired
virtue and good feelings and loved the gentle manners and
amiable qualities of my cottagers, but I was shut out from
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intercourse with them, except through means which I
obtained by stealth, when I was unseen and unknown, and
which rather increased than satisfied the desire I had of
becoming one among my fellows. The gentle words of
Agatha and the animated smiles of the charming Arabian
were not for me. The mild exhortations of the old man
and the lively conversation of the loved Felix were not for
me. Miserable, unhappy wretch!
‘Other lessons were impressed upon me even more
deeply. I heard of the difference of sexes, and the birth and
growth of children, how the father doted on the smiles of
the infant, and the lively sallies of the older child, how all
the life and cares of the mother were wrapped up in the
precious charge, how the mind of youth expanded and
gained knowledge, of brother, sister, and all the various
relationships which bind one human being to another in
mutual bonds.
‘But where were my friends and relations? No father
had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me
with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was
now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished
nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I
then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a
being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with
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me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be
answered only with groans.
‘I will soon explain to what these feelings tended, but
allow me now to return to the cottagers, whose story
excited in me such various feelings of indignation, delight,
and wonder, but which all terminated in additional love
and reverence for my protectors (for so I loved, in an
innocent, half-painful self-deceit, to call them).’
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Chapter 14
‘Some time elapsed before I learned the history of my
friends. It was one which could not fail to impress itself
deeply on my mind, unfolding as it did a number of
circumstances, each interesting and wonderful to one so
utterly inexperienced as I was.
‘The name of the old man was De Lacey. He was
descended from a good family in France, where he had
lived for many years in affluence, respected by his
superiors and beloved by his equals. His son was bred in
the service of his country, and Agatha had ranked with
ladies of the highest distinction. A few months before my
arrival they had lived in a large and luxurious city called
Paris, surrounded by friends and possessed of every
enjoyment which virtue, refinement of intellect, or taste,
accompanied by a moderate fortune, could afford.
‘The father of Safie had been the cause of their ruin.
He was a Turkish merchant and had inhabited Paris for
many years, when, for some reason which I could not
learn, he became obnoxious to the government. He was
seized and cast into prison the very day that Safie arrived
from Constantinople to join him. He was tried and
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condemned to death. The injustice of his sentence was
very flagrant; all Paris was indignant; and it was judged
that his religion and wealth rather than the crime alleged
against him had been the cause of his condemnation.
‘Felix had accidentally been present at the trial; his
horror and indignation were uncontrollable when he
heard the decision of the court. He made, at that moment,
a solemn vow to deliver him and then looked around for
the means. After many fruitless attempts to gain
admittance to the prison, he found a strongly grated
window in an unguarded part of the building, which
lighted the dungeon of the unfortunate Muhammadan,
who, loaded with chains, waited in despair the execution
of the barbarous sentence. Felix visited the grate at night
and made known to the prisoner his intentions in his
favour. The Turk, amazed and delighted, endeavoured to
kindle the zeal of his deliverer by promises of reward and
wealth. Felix rejected his offers with contempt, yet when
he saw the lovely Safie, who was allowed to visit her
father and who by her gestures expressed her lively
gratitude, the youth could not help owning to his own
mind that the captive possessed a treasure which would
fully reward his toil and hazard.
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‘The Turk quickly perceived the impression that his
daughter had made on the heart of Felix and endeavoured
to secure him more entirely in his interests by the promise
of her hand in marriage so soon as he should be conveyed
to a place of safety. Felix was too delicate to accept this
offer, yet he looked forward to the probability of the event
as to the consummation of his happiness.
‘During the ensuing days, while the preparations were
going forward for the escape of the merchant, the zeal of
Felix was warmed by several letters that he received from
this lovely girl, who found means to express her thoughts
in the language of her lover by the aid of an old man, a
servant of her father who understood French. She thanked
him in the most ardent terms for his intended services
towards her parent, and at the same time she gently
deplored her own fate.
‘I have copies of these letters, for I found means, during
my residence in the hovel, to procure the implements of
writing; and the letters were often in the hands of Felix or
Agatha. Before I depart I will give them to you; they will
prove the truth of my tale; but at present, as the sun is
already far declined, I shall only have time to repeat the
substance of them to you.
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‘Safie related that her mother was a Christian Arab,
seized and made a slave by the Turks; recommended by
her beauty, she had won the heart of the father of Safie,
who married her. The young girl spoke in high and
enthusiastic terms of her mother, who, born in freedom,
spurned the bondage to which she was now reduced. She
instructed her daughter in the tenets of her religion and
taught her to aspire to higher powers of intellect and an
independence of spirit forbidden to the female followers of
Muhammad. This lady died, but her lessons were indelibly
impressed on the mind of Safie, who sickened at the
prospect of again returning to Asia and being immured
within the walls of a harem, allowed only to occupy
herself with infantile amusements, ill-suited to the temper
of her soul, now accustomed to grand ideas and a noble
emulation for virtue. The prospect of marrying a Christian
and remaining in a country where women were allowed
to take a rank in society was enchanting to her.
‘The day for the execution of the Turk was fixed, but
on the night previous to it he quitted his prison and before
morning was distant many leagues from Paris. Felix had
procured passports in the name of his father, sister, and
himself. He had previously communicated his plan to the
former, who aided the deceit by quitting his house, under
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the pretence of a journey and concealed himself, with his
daughter, in an obscure part of Paris.
‘Felix conducted the fugitives through France to Lyons
and across Mont Cenis to Leghorn, where the merchant
had decided to wait a favourable opportunity of passing
into some part of the Turkish dominions.
‘Safie resolved to remain with her father until the
moment of his departure, before which time the Turk
renewed his promise that she should be united to his
deliverer; and Felix remained with them in expectation of
that event; and in the meantime he enjoyed the society of
the Arabian, who exhibited towards him the simplest and
tenderest affection. They conversed with one another
through the means of an interpreter, and sometimes with
the interpretation of looks; and Safie sang to him the
divine airs of her native country.
‘The Turk allowed this intimacy to take place and
encouraged the hopes of the youthful lovers, while in his
heart he had formed far other plans. He loathed the idea
that his daughter should be united to a Christian, but he
feared the resentment of Felix if he should appear
lukewarm, for he knew that he was still in the power of
his deliverer if he should choose to betray him to the
Italian state which they inhabited. He revolved a thousand
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plans by which he should be enabled to prolong the deceit
until it might be no longer necessary, and secretly to take
his daughter with him when he departed. His plans were
facilitated by the news which arrived from Paris.
‘The government of France were greatly enraged at the
escape of their victim and spared no pains to detect and
punish his deliverer. The plot of Felix was quickly
discovered, and DeLacey and Agatha were thrown into
prison. The news reached Felix and roused him from his
dream of pleasure. His blind and aged father and his gentle
sister lay in a noisome dungeon while he enjoyed the free
air and the society of her whom he loved. This idea was
torture to him. He quickly arranged with the Turk that if
the latter should find a favourable opportunity for escape
before Felix could return to Italy, Safie should remain as a
boarder at a convent at Leghorn; and then, quitting the
lovely Arabian, he hastened to Paris and delivered himself
up to the vengeance of the law, hoping to free De Lacey
and Agatha by this proceeding.
‘He did not succeed. They remained confined for five
months before the trial took place, the result of which
deprived them of their fortune and condemned them to a
perpetual exile from their native country.
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‘They found a miserable asylum in the cottage in
Germany, where I discovered them. Felix soon learned
that the treacherous Turk, for whom he and his family
endured such unheard-of oppression, on discovering that
his deliverer was thus reduced to poverty and ruin,
became a traitor to good feeling and honour and had
quitted Italy with his daughter, insultingly sending Felix a
pittance of money to aid him, as he said, in some plan of
future maintenance.
‘Such were the events that preyed on the heart of Felix
and rendered him, when I first saw him, the most
miserable of his family. He could have endured poverty,
and while this distress had been the meed of his virtue, he
gloried in it; but the ingratitude of the Turk and the loss
of his beloved Safie were misfortunes more bitter and
irreparable. The arrival of the Arabian now infused new
life into his soul.
‘When the news reached Leghorn that Felix was
deprived of his wealth and rank, the merchant
commanded his daughter to think no more of her lover,
but to prepare to return to her native country. The
generous nature of Safie was outraged by this command;
she attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left
her angrily, reiterating his tyrannical mandate.
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‘A few days after, the Turk entered his daughter’s
apartment and told her hastily that he had reason to
believe that his residence at Leghorn had been divulged
and that he should speedily be delivered up to the French
government; he had consequently hired a vessel to convey
him to Constantinople, for which city he should sail in a
few hours. He intended to leave his daughter under the
care of a confidential servant, to follow at her leisure with
the greater part of his property, which had not yet arrived
at Leghorn.
‘When alone, Safie resolved in her own mind the plan
of conduct that it would become her to pursue in this
emergency. A residence in Turkey was abhorrent to her;
her religion and her feelings were alike averse to it. By
some papers of her father which fell into her hands she
heard of the exile of her lover and learnt the name of the
spot where he then resided. She hesitated some time, but
at length she formed her determination. Taking with her
some jewels that belonged to her and a sum of money, she
quitted Italy with an attendant, a native of Leghorn, but
who understood the common language of Turkey, and
departed for Germany.
‘She arrived in safety at a town about twenty leagues
from the cottage of De Lacey, when her attendant fell
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dangerously ill. Safie nursed her with the most devoted
affection, but the poor girl died, and the Arabian was left
alone, unacquainted with the language of the country and
utterly ignorant of the customs of the world. She fell,
however, into good hands. The Italian had mentioned the
name of the spot for which they were bound, and after her
death the woman of the house in which they had lived
took care that Safie should arrive in safety at the cottage of
her lover.’
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Chapter 15
‘Such was the history of my beloved cottagers. It
impressed me deeply. I learned, from the views of social
life which it developed, to admire their virtues and to
deprecate the vices of mankind.
‘As yet I looked upon crime as a distant evil,
benevolence and generosity were ever present before me,
inciting within me a desire to become an actor in the busy
scene where so many admirable qualities were called forth
and displayed. But in giving an account of the progress of
my intellect, I must not omit a circumstance which
occurred in the beginning of the month of August of the
same year.
‘One night during my accustomed visit to the
neighbouring wood where I collected my own food and
brought home firing for my protectors, I found on the
ground a leathern portmanteau containing several articles
of dress and some books. I eagerly seized the prize and
returned with it to my hovel. Fortunately the books were
written in the language, the elements of which I had
acquired at the cottage; they consisted of Paradise Lost, a
volume of Plutarch’s Lives, and the Sorrows of Werter.
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The possession of these treasures gave me extreme delight;
I now continually studied and exercised my mind upon
these histories, whilst my friends were employed in their
ordinary occupations.
‘I can hardly describe to you the effect of these books.
They produced in me an infinity of new images and
feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more
frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection. In the
Sorrows of Werter, besides the interest of its simple and
affecting story, so many opinions are canvassed and so
many lights thrown upon what had hitherto been to me
obscure subjects that I found in it a never-ending source of
speculation and astonishment. The gentle and domestic
manners it described, combined with lofty sentiments and
feelings, which had for their object something out of self,
accorded well with my experience among my protectors
and with the wants which were forever alive in my own
bosom. But I thought Werter himself a more divine being
than I had ever beheld or imagined; his character
contained no pretension, but it sank deep. The
disquisitions upon death and suicide were calculated to fill
me with wonder. I did not pretend to enter into the
merits of the case, yet I inclined towards the opinions of
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the hero, whose extinction I wept, without precisely
understanding it.
‘As I read, however, I applied much personally to my
own feelings and condition. I found myself similar yet at
the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning
whom I read and to whose conversation I was a listener. I
sympathized with and partly understood them, but I was
unformed in mind; I was dependent on none and related
to none. ‘The path of my departure was free,’ and there
was none to lament my annihilation. My person was
hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean?
Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was
my destination? These questions continually recurred, but
I was unable to solve them.
‘The volume of Plutarch’s Lives which I possessed
contained the histories of the first founders of the ancient
republics. This book had a far different effect upon me
from the Sorrows of Werter. I learned from Werter’s
imaginations despondency and gloom, but Plutarch taught
me high thoughts; he elevated me above the wretched
sphere of my own reflections, to admire and love the
heroes of past ages. Many things I read surpassed my
understanding and experience. I had a very confused
knowledge of kingdoms, wide extents of country, mighty
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rivers, and boundless seas. But I was perfectly
unacquainted with towns and large assemblages of men.
The cottage of my protectors had been the only school in
which I had studied human nature, but this book
developed new and mightier scenes of action. I read of
men concerned in public affairs, governing or massacring
their species. I felt the greatest ardour for virtue rise within
me, and abhorrence for vice, as far as I understood the
signification of those terms, relative as they were, as I
applied them, to pleasure and pain alone. Induced by these
feelings, I was of course led to admire peaceable lawgivers,
Numa, Solon, and Lycurgus, in preference to Romulus
and Theseus. The patriarchal lives of my protectors caused
these impressions to take a firm hold on my mind;
perhaps, if my first introduction to humanity had been
made by a young soldier, burning for glory and slaughter,
I should have been imbued with different sensations.
‘But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper
emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which
had fallen into my hands, as a true history. It moved every
feeling of wonder and awe that the picture of an
omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of
exciting. I often referred the several situations, as their
similarity struck me, to my own. Like Adam, I was
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apparently united by no link to any other being in
existence; but his state was far different from mine in every
other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a
perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the
especial care of his Creator; he was allowed to converse
with and acquire knowledge from beings of a superior
nature, but I was wretched, helpless, and alone. Many
times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my
condition, for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of
my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.
‘Another circumstance strengthened and confirmed
these feelings. Soon after my arrival in the hovel I
discovered some papers in the pocket of the dress which I
had taken from your laboratory. At first I had neglected
them, but now that I was able to decipher the characters
in which they were written, I began to study them with
diligence. It was your journal of the four months that
preceded my creation. You minutely described in these
papers every step you took in the progress of your work;
this history was mingled with accounts of domestic
occurrences. You doubtless recollect these papers. Here
they are. Everything is related in them which bears
reference to my accursed origin; the whole detail of that
series of disgusting circumstances which produced it is set
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in view; the minutest description of my odious and
loathsome person is given, in language which painted your
own horrors and rendered mine indelible. I sickened as I
read. ‘Hateful day when I received life!’ I exclaimed in
agony. ‘Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so
hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in
pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own
image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid
even from the very resemblance. Satan had his
companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him,
but I am solitary and abhorred.’
‘These were the reflections of my hours of
despondency and solitude; but when I contemplated the
virtues of the cottagers, their amiable and benevolent
dispositions, I persuaded myself that when they should
become acquainted with my admiration of their virtues
they would compassionate me and overlook my personal
deformity. Could they turn from their door one, however
monstrous, who solicited their compassion and friendship?
I resolved, at least, not to despair, but in every way to fit
myself for an interview with them which would decide
my fate. I postponed this attempt for some months longer,
for the importance attached to its success inspired me with
a dread lest I should fail. Besides, I found that my
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understanding improved so much with every day’s
experience that I was unwilling to commence this
undertaking until a few more months should have added
to my sagacity.
‘Several changes, in the meantime, took place in the
cottage. The presence of Safie diffused happiness among its
inhabitants, and I also found that a greater degree of plenty
reigned there. Felix and Agatha spent more time in
amusement and conversation, and were assisted in their
labours by servants. They did not appear rich, but they
were contented and happy; their feelings were serene and
peaceful, while mine became every day more tumultuous.
Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly
what a wretched outcast I was. I cherished hope, it is true,
but it vanished when I beheld my person reflected in
water or my shadow in the moonshine, even as that frail
image and that inconstant shade.
‘I endeavoured to crush these fears and to fortify myself
for the trial which in a few months I resolved to undergo;
and sometimes I allowed my thoughts, unchecked by
reason, to ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to
fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathizing with my
feelings and cheering my gloom; their angelic
countenances breathed smiles of consolation. But it was all
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a dream; no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my
thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam’s supplication
to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned
me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him.
‘Autumn passed thus. I saw, with surprise and grief, the
leaves decay and fall, and nature again assume the barren
and bleak appearance it had worn when I first beheld the
woods and the lovely moon. Yet I did not heed the
bleakness of the weather; I was better fitted by my
conformation for the endurance of cold than heat. But my
chief delights were the sight of the flowers, the birds, and
all the gay apparel of summer; when those deserted me, I
turned with more attention towards the cottagers. Their
happiness was not decreased by the absence of summer.
They loved and sympathized with one another; and their
joys, depending on each other, were not interrupted by
the casualties that took place around them. The more I
saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their
protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known
and loved by these amiable creatures; to see their sweet
looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost
limit of my ambition. I dared not think that they would
turn them from me with disdain and horror. The poor
that stopped at their door were never driven away. I
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asked, it is true, for greater treasures than a little food or
rest: I required kindness and sympathy; but I did not
believe myself utterly unworthy of it.
‘The winter advanced, and an entire revolution of the
seasons had taken place since I awoke into life. My
attention at this time was solely directed towards my plan
of introducing myself into the cottage of my protectors. I
revolved many projects, but that on which I finally fixed
was to enter the dwelling when the blind old man should
be alone. I had sagacity enough to discover that the
unnatural hideousness of my person was the chief object of
horror with those who had formerly beheld me. My
voice, although harsh, had nothing terrible in it; I thought,
therefore, that if in the absence of his children I could gain
the good will and mediation of the old De Lacey, I might
by his means be tolerated by my younger protectors.
‘One day, when the sun shone on the red leaves that
strewed the ground and diffused cheerfulness, although it
denied warmth, Safie, Agatha, and Felix departed on a
long country walk, and the old man, at his own desire,
was left alone in the cottage. When his children had
departed, he took up his guitar and played several
mournful but sweet airs, more sweet and mournful than I
had ever heard him play before. At first his countenance
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was illuminated with pleasure, but as he continued,
thoughtfulness and sadness succeeded; at length, laying
aside the instrument, he sat absorbed in reflection.
‘My heart beat quick; this was the hour and moment of
trial, which would decide my hopes or realize my fears.
The servants were gone to a neighbouring fair. All was
silent in and around the cottage; it was an excellent
opportunity; yet, when I proceeded to execute my plan,
my limbs failed me and I sank to the ground. Again I rose,
and exerting all the firmness of which I was master,
removed the planks which I had placed before my hovel
to conceal my retreat. The fresh air revived me, and with
renewed determination I approached the door of their
cottage.
‘I knocked. ‘Who is there?’ said the old man. ‘Come
in.’
‘I entered. ‘Pardon this intrusion,’ said I; ‘I am a
traveller in want of a little rest; you would greatly oblige
me if you would allow me to remain a few minutes before
the fire.’
‘‘Enter,’ said De Lacey, ‘and I will try in what manner I
can to relieve your wants; but, unfortunately, my children
are from home, and as I am blind, I am afraid I shall find it
difficult to procure food for you.’
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‘‘Do not trouble yourself, my kind host; I have food; it
is warmth and rest only that I need.’
‘I sat down, and a silence ensued. I knew that every
minute was precious to me, yet I remained irresolute in
what manner to commence the interview, when the old
man addressed me. ‘By your language, stranger, I suppose
you are my countryman; are you French?’
‘‘No; but I was educated by a French family and
understand that language only. I am now going to claim
the protection of some friends, whom I sincerely love, and
of whose favour I have some hopes.’
‘‘Are they Germans?’
‘‘No, they are French. But let us change the subject. I
am an unfortunate and deserted creature, I look around
and I have no relation or friend upon earth. These amiable
people to whom I go have never seen me and know little
of me. I am full of fears, for if I fail there, I am an outcast
in the world forever.’
‘‘Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be
unfortunate, but the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by
any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and
charity. Rely, therefore, on your hopes; and if these
friends are good and amiable, do not despair.’
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‘‘They are kind—they are the most excellent creatures
in the world; but, unfortunately, they are prejudiced
against me. I have good dispositions; my life has been
hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal
prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a
feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable
monster.’
‘‘That is indeed unfortunate; but if you are really
blameless, cannot you undeceive them?’
‘‘I am about to undertake that task; and it is on that
account that I feel so many overwhelming terrors. I
tenderly love these friends; I have, unknown to them,
been for many months in the habits of daily kindness
towards them; but they believe that I wish to injure them,
and it is that prejudice which I wish to overcome.’
‘‘Where do these friends reside?’
‘‘Near this spot.’
‘The old man paused and then continued, ‘If you will
unreservedly confide to me the particulars of your tale, I
perhaps may be of use in undeceiving them. I am blind
and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is
something in your words which persuades me that you are
sincere. I am poor and an exile, but it will afford me true
pleasure to be in any way serviceable to a human creature.’
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‘‘Excellent man! I thank you and accept your generous
offer. You raise me from the dust by this kindness; and I
trust that, by your aid, I shall not be driven from the
society and sympathy of your fellow creatures.’
‘‘Heaven forbid! Even if you were really criminal, for
that can only drive you to desperation, and not instigate
you to virtue. I also am unfortunate; I and my family have
been condemned, although innocent; judge, therefore, if I
do not feel for your misfortunes.’
‘‘How can I thank you, my best and only benefactor?
From your lips first have I heard the voice of kindness
directed towards me; I shall be forever grateful; and your
present humanity assures me of success with those friends
whom I am on the point of meeting.’
‘‘May I know the names and residence of those
friends?’ ‘I paused. This, I thought, was the moment of
decision, which was to rob me of or bestow happiness on
me forever. I struggled vainly for firmness sufficient to
answer him, but the effort destroyed all my remaining
strength; I sank on the chair and sobbed aloud. At that
moment I heard the steps of my younger protectors. I had
not a moment to lose, but seizing the hand of the old
man, I cried, ‘Now is the time! Save and protect me! You
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and your family are the friends whom I seek. Do not you
desert me in the hour of trial!’
‘‘Great God!’ exclaimed the old man. ‘Who are you?’
‘At that instant the cottage door was opened, and Felix,
Safie, and Agatha entered. Who can describe their horror
and consternation on beholding me? Agatha fainted, and
Safie, unable to attend to her friend, rushed out of the
cottage. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force
tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung, in a
transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck
me violently with a stick. I could have torn him limb from
limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sank
within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained. I saw
him on the point of repeating his blow, when, overcome
by pain and anguish, I quitted the cottage, and in the
general tumult escaped unperceived to my hovel.’
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Chapter 16
‘Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that
instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which
you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had
not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of
rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the
cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with
their shrieks and misery.
‘When night came I quitted my retreat and wandered
in the wood; and now, no longer restrained by the fear of
discovery, I gave vent to my anguish in fearful howlings. I
was like a wild beast that had broken the toils, destroying
the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the
wood with a staglike swiftness. Oh! What a miserable
night I passed! The cold stars shone in mockery, and the
bare trees waved their branches above me; now and then
the sweet voice of a bird burst forth amidst the universal
stillness. All, save I, were at rest or in enjoyment; I, like
the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me, and finding myself
unsympathized with, wished to tear up the trees, spread
havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat
down and enjoyed the ruin.
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‘But this was a luxury of sensation that could not
endure; I became fatigued with excess of bodily exertion
and sank on the damp grass in the sick impotence of
despair. There was none among the myriads of men that
existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel
kindness towards my enemies? No; from that moment I
declared everlasting war against the species, and more than
all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to
this insupportable misery.
‘The sun rose; I heard the voices of men and knew that
it was impossible to return to my retreat during that day.
Accordingly I hid myself in some thick underwood,
determining to devote the ensuing hours to reflection on
my situation.
‘The pleasant sunshine and the pure air of day restored
me to some degree of tranquillity; and when I considered
what had passed at the cottage, I could not help believing
that I had been too hasty in my conclusions. I had
certainly acted imprudently. It was apparent that my
conversation had interested the father in my behalf, and I
was a fool in having exposed my person to the horror of
his children. I ought to have familiarized the old De Lacey
to me, and by degrees to have discovered myself to the
rest of his family, when they should have been prepared
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for my approach. But I did not believe my errors to be
irretrievable, and after much consideration I resolved to
return to the cottage, seek the old man, and by my
representations win him to my party.
‘These thoughts calmed me, and in the afternoon I sank
into a profound sleep; but the fever of my blood did not
allow me to be visited by peaceful dreams. The horrible
scene of the preceding day was forever acting before my
eyes; the females were flying and the enraged Felix tearing
me from his father’s feet. I awoke exhausted, and finding
that it was already night, I crept forth from my hiding-
place, and went in search of food.
‘When my hunger was appeased, I directed my steps
towards the well-known path that conducted to the
cottage. All there was at peace. I crept into my hovel and
remained in silent expectation of the accustomed hour
when the family arose. That hour passed, the sun mounted
high in the heavens, but the cottagers did not appear. I
trembled violently, apprehending some dreadful
misfortune. The inside of the cottage was dark, and I
heard no motion; I cannot describe the agony of this
suspense.
‘Presently two countrymen passed by, but pausing near
the cottage, they entered into conversation, using violent
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gesticulations; but I did not understand what they said, as
they spoke the language of the country, which differed
from that of my protectors. Soon after, however, Felix
approached with another man; I was surprised, as I knew
that he had not quitted the cottage that morning, and
waited anxiously to discover from his discourse the
meaning of these unusual appearances.
‘‘Do you consider,’ said his companion to him, ‘that
you will be obliged to pay three months’ rent and to lose
the produce of your garden? I do not wish to take any
unfair advantage, and I beg therefore that you will take
some days to consider of your determination.’
‘‘It is utterly useless,’ replied Felix; ‘we can never again
inhabit your cottage. The life of my father is in the
greatest danger, owing to the dreadful circumstance that I
have related. My wife and my sister will never recover
from their horror. I entreat you not to reason with me any
more. Take possession of your tenement and let me fly
from this place.’
‘Felix trembled violently as he said this. He and his
companion entered the cottage, in which they remained
for a few minutes, and then departed. I never saw any of
the family of De Lacey more.
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‘I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel
in a state of utter and stupid despair. My protectors had
departed and had broken the only link that held me to the
world. For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred
filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them, but
allowing myself to be borne away by the stream, I bent my
mind towards injury and death. When I thought of my
friends, of the mild voice of De Lacey, the gentle eyes of
Agatha, and the exquisite beauty of the Arabian, these
thoughts vanished and a gush of tears somewhat soothed
me. But again when I reflected that they had spurned and
deserted me, anger returned, a rage of anger, and unable to
injure anything human, I turned my fury towards
inanimate objects. As night advanced I placed a variety of
combustibles around the cottage, and after having
destroyed every vestige of cultivation in the garden, I
waited with forced impatience until the moon had sunk to
commence my operations.
‘As the night advanced, a fierce wind arose from the
woods and quickly dispersed the clouds that had loitered
in the heavens; the blast tore along like a mighty avalanche
and produced a kind of insanity in my spirits that burst all
bounds of reason and reflection. I lighted the dry branch
of a tree and danced with fury around the devoted cottage,
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my eyes still fixed on the western horizon, the edge of
which the moon nearly touched. A part of its orb was at
length hid, and I waved my brand; it sank, and with a loud
scream I fired the straw, and heath, and bushes, which I
had collected. The wind fanned the fire, and the cottage
was quickly enveloped by the flames, which clung to it
and licked it with their forked and destroying tongues.
‘As soon as I was convinced that no assistance could
save any part of the habitation, I quitted the scene and
sought for refuge in the woods.
‘And now, with the world before me, whither should I
bend my steps? I resolved to fly far from the scene of my
misfortunes; but to me, hated and despised, every country
must be equally horrible. At length the thought of you
crossed my mind. I learned from your papers that you
were my father, my creator; and to whom could I apply
with more fitness than to him who had given me life?
Among the lessons that Felix had bestowed upon Safie,
geography had not been omitted; I had learned from these
the relative situations of the different countries of the
earth. You had mentioned Geneva as the name of your
native town, and towards this place I resolved to proceed.
‘But how was I to direct myself? I knew that I must
travel in a southwesterly direction to reach my destination,
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but the sun was my only guide. I did not know the names
of the towns that I was to pass through, nor could I ask
information from a single human being; but I did not
despair. From you only could I hope for succour, although
towards you I felt no sentiment but that of hatred.
Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with
perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object
for the scorn and horror of mankind. But on you only had
I any claim for pity and redress, and from you I
determined to seek that justice which I vainly attempted
to gain from any other being that wore the human form.
‘My travels were long and the sufferings I endured
intense. It was late in autumn when I quitted the district
where I had so long resided. I travelled only at night,
fearful of encountering the visage of a human being.
Nature decayed around me, and the sun became heatless;
rain and snow poured around me; mighty rivers were
frozen; the surface of the earth was hard and chill, and
bare, and I found no shelter. Oh, earth! How often did I
imprecate curses on the cause of my being! The mildness
of my nature had fled, and all within me was turned to gall
and bitterness. The nearer I approached to your
habitation, the more deeply did I feel the spirit of revenge
enkindled in my heart. Snow fell, and the waters were
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hardened, but I rested not. A few incidents now and then
directed me, and I possessed a map of the country; but I
often wandered wide from my path. The agony of my
feelings allowed me no respite; no incident occurred from
which my rage and misery could not extract its food; but a
circumstance that happened when I arrived on the
confines of Switzerland, when the sun had recovered its
warmth and the earth again began to look green,
confirmed in an especial manner the bitterness and horror
of my feelings.
‘I generally rested during the day and travelled only
when I was secured by night from the view of man. One
morning, however, finding that my path lay through a
deep wood, I ventured to continue my journey after the
sun had risen; the day, which was one of the first of
spring, cheered even me by the loveliness of its sunshine
and the balminess of the air. I felt emotions of gentleness
and pleasure, that had long appeared dead, revive within
me. Half surprised by the novelty of these sensations, I
allowed myself to be borne away by them, and forgetting
my solitude and deformity, dared to be happy. Soft tears
again bedewed my cheeks, and I even raised my humid
eyes with thankfulness towards the blessed sun, which
bestowed such joy upon me.
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‘I continued to wind among the paths of the wood,
until I came to its boundary, which was skirted by a deep
and rapid river, into which many of the trees bent their
branches, now budding with the fresh spring. Here I
paused, not exactly knowing what path to pursue, when I
heard the sound of voices, that induced me to conceal
myself under the shade of a cypress. I was scarcely hid
when a young girl came running towards the spot where I
was concealed, laughing, as if she ran from someone in
sport. She continued her course along the precipitous sides
of the river, when suddenly her foot slipped, and she fell
into the rapid stream. I rushed from my hiding-place and
with extreme labour, from the force of the current, saved
her and dragged her to shore. She was senseless, and I
endeavoured by every means in my power to restore
animation, when I was suddenly interrupted by the
approach of a rustic, who was probably the person from
whom she had playfully fled. On seeing me, he darted
towards me, and tearing the girl from my arms, hastened
towards the deeper parts of the wood. I followed speedily,
I hardly knew why; but when the man saw me draw near,
he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body and fired. I
sank to the ground, and my injurer, with increased
swiftness, escaped into the wood.
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‘This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had
saved a human being from destruction, and as a
recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a
wound which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of
kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few
moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of
teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and
vengeance to all mankind. But the agony of my wound
overcame me; my pulses paused, and I fainted.
‘For some weeks I led a miserable life in the woods,
endeavouring to cure the wound which I had received.
The ball had entered my shoulder, and I knew not
whether it had remained there or passed through; at any
rate I had no means of extracting it. My sufferings were
augmented also by the oppressive sense of the injustice and
ingratitude of their infliction. My daily vows rose for
revenge— a deep and deadly revenge, such as would alone
compensate for the outrages and anguish I had endured.
‘After some weeks my wound healed, and I continued
my journey. The labours I endured were no longer to be
alleviated by the bright sun or gentle breezes of spring; all
joy was but a mockery which insulted my desolate state
and made me feel more painfully that I was not made for
the enjoyment of pleasure.
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‘But my toils now drew near a close, and in two
months from this time I reached the environs of Geneva.
‘It was evening when I arrived, and I retired to a
hiding-place among the fields that surround it to meditate
in what manner I should apply to you. I was oppressed by
fatigue and hunger and far too unhappy to enjoy the
gentle breezes of evening or the prospect of the sun setting
behind the stupendous mountains of Jura.
‘At this time a slight sleep relieved me from the pain of
reflection, which was disturbed by the approach of a
beautiful child, who came running into the recess I had
chosen, with all the sportiveness of infancy. Suddenly, as I
gazed on him, an idea seized me that this little creature
was unprejudiced and had lived too short a time to have
imbibed a horror of deformity. If, therefore, I could seize
him and educate him as my companion and friend, I
should not be so desolate in this peopled earth.
‘Urged by this impulse, I seized on the boy as he passed
and drew him towards me. As soon as he beheld my form,
he placed his hands before his eyes and uttered a shrill
scream; I drew his hand forcibly from his face and said,
‘Child, what is the meaning of this? I do not intend to
hurt you; listen to me.’
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‘He struggled violently. ‘Let me go,’ he cried; ‘monster!
Ugly wretch! You wish to eat me and tear me to pieces.
You are an ogre. Let me go, or I will tell my papa.’
‘‘Boy, you will never see your father again; you must
come with me.’
‘‘Hideous monster! Let me go. My papa is a Syndic—
he is M. Frankenstein—he will punish you. You dare not
keep me.’
‘‘Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy—to him
towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be
my first victim.’
‘The child still struggled and loaded me with epithets
which carried despair to my heart; I grasped his throat to
silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet.
‘I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with
exultation and hellish triumph; clapping my hands, I
exclaimed, ‘I too can create desolation; my enemy is not
invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a
thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him.’
‘As I fixed my eyes on the child, I saw something
glittering on his breast. I took it; it was a portrait of a most
lovely woman. In spite of my malignity, it softened and
attracted me. For a few moments I gazed with delight on
her dark eyes, fringed by deep lashes, and her lovely lips;
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but presently my rage returned; I remembered that I was
forever deprived of the delights that such beautiful
creatures could bestow and that she whose resemblance I
contemplated would, in regarding me, have changed that
air of divine benignity to one expressive of disgust and
affright.
‘Can you wonder that such thoughts transported me
with rage? I only wonder that at that moment, instead of
venting my sensations in exclamations and agony, I did
not rush among mankind and perish in the attempt to
destroy them.
‘While l was overcome by these feelings, I left the spot
where I had committed the murder, and seeking a more
secluded hiding-place, I entered a barn which had
appeared to me to be empty. A woman was sleeping on
some straw; she was young, not indeed so beautiful as her
whose portrait I held, but of an agreeable aspect and
blooming in the loveliness of youth and health. Here, I
thought, is one of those whose joy-imparting smiles are
bestowed on all but me. And then I bent over her and
whispered, ‘Awake, fairest, thy lover is near—he who
would give his life but to obtain one look of affection
from thine eyes; my beloved, awake!’
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‘The sleeper stirred; a thrill of terror ran through me.
Should she indeed awake, and see me, and curse me, and
denounce the murderer? Thus would she assuredly act if
her darkened eyes opened and she beheld me. The
thought was madness; it stirred the fiend within me—not
I, but she, shall suffer; the murder I have committed
because I am forever robbed of all that she could give me,
she shall atone. The crime had its source in her; be hers
the punishment! Thanks to the lessons of Felix and the
sanguinary laws of man, I had learned now to work
mischief. I bent over her and placed the portrait securely
in one of the folds of her dress. She moved again, and I
fled.
‘For some days I haunted the spot where these scenes
had taken place, sometimes wishing to see you, sometimes
resolved to quit the world and its miseries forever. At
length I wandered towards these mountains, and have
ranged through their immense recesses, consumed by a
burning passion which you alone can gratify. We may not
part until you have promised to comply with my
requisition. I am alone and miserable; man will not
associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as
myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must
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be of the same species and have the same defects. This
being you must create.’
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Chapter 17
The being finished speaking and fixed his looks upon
me in the expectation of a reply. But I was bewildered,
perplexed, and unable to arrange my ideas sufficiently to
understand the full extent of his proposition. He
continued,
‘You must create a female for me with whom I can live
in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my
being. This you alone can do, and I demand it of you as a
right which you must not refuse to concede.’
The latter part of his tale had kindled anew in me the
anger that had died away while he narrated his peaceful
life among the cottagers, and as he said this I could no
longer suppress the rage that burned within me.
‘I do refuse it,’ I replied; ‘and no torture shall ever
extort a consent from me. You may render me the most
miserable of men, but you shall never make me base in my
own eyes. Shall I create another like yourself, whose joint
wickedness might desolate the world. Begone! I have
answered you; you may torture me, but I will never
consent.’
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‘You are in the wrong,’ replied the fiend; ‘and instead
of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am
malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and
hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to
pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I
should pity man more than he pities me? You would not
call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those
ice-rifts and destroy my frame, the work of your own
hands. Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let
him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and
instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him
with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot
be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our
union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject
slavery. I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love,
I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my archenemy,
because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred.
Have a care; I will work at your destruction, nor finish
until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour
of your birth.’
A fiendish rage animated him as he said this; his face
was wrinkled into contortions too horrible for human eyes
to behold; but presently he calmed himself and proceeded-
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‘I intended to reason. This passion is detrimental to me,
for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess.
If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I
should return them a hundred and a hundredfold; for that
one creature’s sake I would make peace with the whole
kind! But I now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be
realized. What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate; I
demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself;
the gratification is small, but it is all that I can receive, and
it shall content me. It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off
from all the world; but on that account we shall be more
attached to one another. Our lives will not be happy, but
they will be harmless and free from the misery I now feel.
Oh! My creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude
towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the
sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my
request!’
I was moved. I shuddered when I thought of the
possible consequences of my consent, but I felt that there
was some justice in his argument. His tale and the feelings
he now expressed proved him to be a creature of fine
sensations, and did I not as his maker owe him all the
portion of happiness that it was in my power to bestow?
He saw my change of feeling and continued,
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‘If you consent, neither you nor any other human
being shall ever see us again; I will go to the vast wilds of
South America. My food is not that of man; I do not
destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns
and berries afford me sufficient nourishment. My
companion will be of the same nature as myself and will
be content with the same fare. We shall make our bed of
dried leaves; the sun will shine on us as on man and will
ripen our food. The picture I present to you is peaceful
and human, and you must feel that you could deny it only
in the wantonness of power and cruelty. Pitiless as you
have been towards me, I now see compassion in your
eyes; let me seize the favourable moment and persuade
you to promise what I so ardently desire.’
‘You propose,’ replied I, ‘to fly from the habitations of
man, to dwell in those wilds where the beasts of the field
will be your only companions. How can you, who long
for the love and sympathy of man, persevere in this exile?
You will return and again seek their kindness, and you
will meet with their detestation; your evil passions will be
renewed, and you will then have a companion to aid you
in the task of destruction. This may not be; cease to argue
the point, for I cannot consent.’
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‘How inconstant are your feelings! But a moment ago
you were moved by my representations, and why do you
again harden yourself to my complaints? I swear to you, by
the earth which I inhabit, and by you that made me, that
with the companion you bestow I will quit the
neighbourhood of man and dwell, as it may chance, in the
most savage of places. My evil passions will have fled, for I
shall meet with sympathy! My life will flow quietly away,
and in my dying moments I shall not curse my maker.’
His words had a strange effect upon me. I
compassionated him and sometimes felt a wish to console
him, but when I looked upon him, when I saw the filthy
mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened and my
feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred. I tried
to stifle these sensations; I thought that as I could not
sympathize with him, I had no right to withhold from him
the small portion of happiness which was yet in my power
to bestow.
‘You swear,’ I said, ‘to be harmless; but have you not
already shown a degree of malice that should reasonably
make me distrust you? May not even this be a feint that
will increase your triumph by affording a wider scope for
your revenge?’
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‘How is this? I must not be trifled with, and I demand
an answer. If I have no ties and no affections, hatred and
vice must be my portion; the love of another will destroy
the cause of my crimes, and I shall become a thing of
whose existence everyone will be ignorant. My vices are
the children of a forced solitude that I abhor, and my
virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion
with an equal. I shall feel the affections of a sensitive being
and became linked to the chain of existence and events
from which I am now excluded.’
I paused some time to reflect on all he had related and
the various arguments which he had employed. I thought
of the promise of virtues which he had displayed on the
opening of his existence and the subsequent blight of all
kindly feeling by the loathing and scorn which his
protectors had manifested towards him. His power and
threats were not omitted in my calculations; a creature
who could exist in the ice caves of the glaciers and hide
himself from pursuit among the ridges of inaccessible
precipices was a being possessing faculties it would be vain
to cope with. After a long pause of reflection I concluded
that the justice due both to him and my fellow creatures
demanded of me that I should comply with his request.
Turning to him, therefore, I said,
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‘I consent to your demand, on your solemn oath to
quit Europe forever, and every other place in the
neighbourhood of man, as soon as I shall deliver into your
hands a female who will accompany you in your exile.’
‘I swear,’ he cried, ‘by the sun, and by the blue sky of
heaven, and by the fire of love that burns my heart, that if
you grant my prayer, while they exist you shall never
behold me again. Depart to your home and commence
your labours; I shall watch their progress with unutterable
anxiety; and fear not but that when you are ready I shall
appear.’
Saying this, he suddenly quitted me, fearful, perhaps, of
any change in my sentiments. I saw him descend the
mountain with greater speed than the flight of an eagle,
and quickly lost among the undulations of the sea of ice.
His tale had occupied the whole day, and the sun was
upon the verge of the horizon when he departed. I knew
that I ought to hasten my descent towards the valley, as I
should soon be encompassed in darkness; but my heart was
heavy, and my steps slow. The labour of winding among
the little paths of the mountain and fixing my feet firmly as
I advanced perplexed me, occupied as I was by the
emotions which the occurrences of the day had produced.
Night was far advanced when I came to the halfway
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resting-place and seated myself beside the fountain. The
stars shone at intervals as the clouds passed from over
them; the dark pines rose before me, and every here and
there a broken tree lay on the ground; it was a scene of
wonderful solemnity and stirred strange thoughts within
me. I wept bitterly, and clasping my hands in agony, I
exclaimed, ‘Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all
about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush sensation
and memory; let me become as nought; but if not, depart,
depart, and leave me in darkness.’
These were wild and miserable thoughts, but I cannot
describe to you how the eternal twinkling of the stars
weighed upon me and how I listened to every blast of
wind as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way to consume
me.
Morning dawned before I arrived at the village of
Chamounix; I took no rest, but returned immediately to
Geneva. Even in my own heart I could give no expression
to my sensations—they weighed on me with a mountain’s
weight and their excess destroyed my agony beneath
them. Thus I returned home, and entering the house,
presented myself to the family. My haggard and wild
appearance awoke intense alarm, but I answered no
question, scarcely did I speak. I felt as if I were placed
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under a ban—as if I had no right to claim their
sympathies— as if never more might I enjoy
companionship with them. Yet even thus I loved them to
adoration; and to save them, I resolved to dedicate myself
to my most abhorred task. The prospect of such an
occupation made every other circumstance of existence
pass before me like a dream, and that thought only had to
me the reality of life.
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Chapter 18
Day after day, week after week, passed away on my
return to Geneva; and I could not collect the courage to
recommence my work. I feared the vengeance of the
disappointed fiend, yet I was unable to overcome my
repugnance to the task which was enjoined me. I found
that I could not compose a female without again devoting
several months to profound study and laborious
disquisition. I had heard of some discoveries having been
made by an English philosopher, the knowledge of which
was material to my success, and I sometimes thought of
obtaining my father’s consent to visit England for this
purpose; but I clung to every pretence of delay and shrank
from taking the first step in an undertaking whose
immediate necessity began to appear less absolute to me. A
change indeed had taken place in me; my health, which
had hitherto declined, was now much restored; and my
spirits, when unchecked by the memory of my unhappy
promise, rose proportionably. My father saw this change
with pleasure, and he turned his thoughts towards the best
method of eradicating the remains of my melancholy,
which every now and then would return by fits, and with
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a devouring blackness overcast the approaching sunshine.
At these moments I took refuge in the most perfect
solitude. I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little
boat, watching the clouds and listening to the rippling of
the waves, silent and listless. But the fresh air and bright
sun seldom failed to restore me to some degree of
composure, and on my return I met the salutations of my
friends with a readier smile and a more cheerful heart.
It was after my return from one of these rambles that
my father, calling me aside, thus addressed me,
‘I am happy to remark, my dear son, that you have
resumed your former pleasures and seem to be returning
to yourself. And yet you are still unhappy and still avoid
our society. For some time I was lost in conjecture as to
the cause of this, but yesterday an idea struck me, and if it
is well founded, I conjure you to avow it. Reserve on
such a point would be not only useless, but draw down
treble misery on us all.’
I trembled violently at his exordium, and my father
continued— ‘I confess, my son, that I have always looked
forward to your marriage with our dear Elizabeth as the tie
of our domestic comfort and the stay of my declining
years. You were attached to each other from your earliest
infancy; you studied together, and appeared, in
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dispositions and tastes, entirely suited to one another. But
so blind is the experience of man that what I conceived to
be the best assistants to my plan may have entirely
destroyed it. You, perhaps, regard her as your sister,
without any wish that she might become your wife. Nay,
you may have met with another whom you may love; and
considering yourself as bound in honour to Elizabeth, this
struggle may occasion the poignant misery which you
appear to feel.’
‘My dear father, reassure yourself. I love my cousin
tenderly and sincerely. I never saw any woman who
excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and
affection. My future hopes and prospects are entirely
bound up in the expectation of our union.’
‘The expression of your sentiments of this subject, my
dear Victor, gives me more pleasure than I have for some
time experienced. If you feel thus, we shall assuredly be
happy, however present events may cast a gloom over us.
But it is this gloom which appears to have taken so strong
a hold of your mind that I wish to dissipate. Tell me,
therefore, whether you object to an immediate
solemnization of the marriage. We have been unfortunate,
and recent events have drawn us from that everyday
tranquillity befitting my years and infirmities. You are
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younger; yet l do not suppose, possessed as you are of a
competent fortune, that an early marriage would at all
interfere with any future plans of honour and utility that
you may have formed. Do not suppose, however, that I
wish to dictate happiness to you or that a delay on your
part would cause me any serious uneasiness. Interpret my
words with candour and answer me, I conjure you, with
confidence and sincerity.’
I listened to my father in silence and remained for some
time incapable of offering any reply. I revolved rapidly in
my mind a multitude of thoughts and endeavoured to
arrive at some conclusion. Alas! To me the idea of an
immediate union with my Elizabeth was one of horror
and dismay. I was bound by a solemn promise which I had
not yet fulfilled and dared not break, or if I did, what
manifold miseries might not impend over me and my
devoted family! Could I enter into a festival with this
deadly weight yet hanging round my neck and bowing me
to the ground? I must perform my engagement and let the
monster depart with his mate before I allowed myself to
enjoy the delight of a union from which I expected peace.
I remembered also the necessity imposed upon me of
either journeying to England or entering into a long
correspondence with those philosophers of that country
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whose knowledge and discoveries were of indispensable
use to me in my present undertaking. The latter method
of obtaining the desired intelligence was dilatory and
unsatisfactory; besides, I had an insurmountable aversion to
the idea of engaging myself in my loathsome task in my
father’s house while in habits of familiar intercourse with
those I loved. I knew that a thousand fearful accidents
might occur, the slightest of which would disclose a tale to
thrill all connected with me with horror. I was aware also
that I should often lose all self-command, all capacity of
hiding the harrowing sensations that would possess me
during the progress of my unearthly occupation. I must
absent myself from all I loved while thus employed. Once
commenced, it would quickly be achieved, and I might be
restored to my family in peace and happiness. My promise
fulfilled, the monster would depart forever. Or (so my
fond fancy imaged) some accident might meanwhile occur
to destroy him and put an end to my slavery forever.
These feelings dictated my answer to my father. I
expressed a wish to visit England, but concealing the true
reasons of this request, I clothed my desires under a guise
which excited no suspicion, while I urged my desire with
an earnestness that easily induced my father to comply.
After so long a period of an absorbing melancholy that
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resembled madness in its intensity and effects, he was glad
to find that I was capable of taking pleasure in the idea of
such a journey, and he hoped that change of scene and
varied amusement would, before my return, have restored
me entirely to myself.
The duration of my absence was left to my own
choice; a few months, or at most a year, was the period
contemplated. One paternal kind precaution he had taken
to ensure my having a companion. Without previously
communicating with me, he had, in concert with
Elizabeth, arranged that Clerval should join me at
Strasbourg. This interfered with the solitude I coveted for
the prosecution of my task; yet at the commencement of
my journey the presence of my friend could in no way be
an impediment, and truly I rejoiced that thus I should be
saved many hours of lonely, maddening reflection. Nay,
Henry might stand between me and the intrusion of my
foe. If I were alone, would he not at times force his
abhorred presence on me to remind me of my task or to
contemplate its progress?
To England, therefore, I was bound, and it was
understood that my union with Elizabeth should take
place immediately on my return. My father’s age rendered
him extremely averse to delay. For myself, there was one
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reward I promised myself from my detested toils— one
consolation for my unparalleled sufferings; it was the
prospect of that day when, enfranchised from my
miserable slavery, I might claim Elizabeth and forget the
past in my union with her.
I now made arrangements for my journey, but one
feeling haunted me which filled me with fear and
agitation. During my absence I should leave my friends
unconscious of the existence of their enemy and
unprotected from his attacks, exasperated as he might be
by my departure. But he had promised to follow me
wherever I might go, and would he not accompany me to
England? This imagination was dreadful in itself, but
soothing inasmuch as it supposed the safety of my friends.
I was agonized with the idea of the possibility that the
reverse of this might happen. But through the whole
period during which I was the slave of my creature I
allowed myself to be governed by the impulses of the
moment; and my present sensations strongly intimated that
the fiend would follow me and exempt my family from
the danger of his machinations.
It was in the latter end of September that I again
quitted my native country. My journey had been my own
suggestion, and Elizabeth therefore acquiesced, but she
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was filled with disquiet at the idea of my suffering, away
from her, the inroads of misery and grief. It had been her
care which provided me a companion in Clerval—and yet
a man is blind to a thousand minute circumstances which
call forth a woman’s sedulous attention. She longed to bid
me hasten my return; a thousand conflicting emotions
rendered her mute as she bade me a tearful, silent farewell.
I threw myself into the carriage that was to convey me
away, hardly knowing whither I was going, and careless of
what was passing around. I remembered only, and it was
with a bitter anguish that I reflected on it, to order that
my chemical instruments should be packed to go with me.
Filled with dreary imaginations, I passed through many
beautiful and majestic scenes, but my eyes were fixed and
unobserving. I could only think of the bourne of my
travels and the work which was to occupy me whilst they
endured.
After some days spent in listless indolence, during
which I traversed many leagues, I arrived at Strasbourg,
where I waited two days for Clerval. He came. Alas, how
great was the contrast between us! He was alive to every
new scene, joyful when he saw the beauties of the setting
sun, and more happy when he beheld it rise and
recommence a new day. He pointed out to me the
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shifting colours of the landscape and the appearances of the
sky. ‘This is what it is to live,’ he cried; ‘how I enjoy
existence! But you, my dear Frankenstein, wherefore are
you desponding and sorrowful!’ In truth, I was occupied
by gloomy thoughts and neither saw the descent of the
evening star nor the golden sunrise reflected in the Rhine.
And you, my friend, would be far more amused with the
journal of Clerval, who observed the scenery with an eye
of feeling and delight, than in listening to my reflections. I,
a miserable wretch, haunted by a curse that shut up every
avenue to enjoyment.
We had agreed to descend the Rhine in a boat from
Strasbourg to Rotterdam, whence we might take shipping
for London. During this voyage we passed many willowy
islands and saw several beautiful towns. We stayed a day at
Mannheim, and on the fifth from our departure from
Strasbourg, arrived at Mainz. The course of the Rhine
below Mainz becomes much more picturesque. The river
descends rapidly and winds between hills, not high, but
steep, and of beautiful forms. We saw many ruined castles
standing on the edges of precipices, surrounded by black
woods, high and inaccessible. This part of the Rhine,
indeed, presents a singularly variegated landscape. In one
spot you view rugged hills, ruined castles overlooking
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tremendous precipices, with the dark Rhine rushing
beneath; and on the sudden turn of a promontory,
flourishing vineyards with green sloping banks and a
meandering river and populous towns occupy the scene.
We travelled at the time of the vintage and heard the
song of the labourers as we glided down the stream. Even
I, depressed in mind, and my spirits continually agitated by
gloomy feelings, even I was pleased. I lay at the bottom of
the boat, and as I gazed on the cloudless blue sky, I
seemed to drink in a tranquillity to which I had long been
a stranger. And if these were my sensations, who can
describe those of Henry? He felt as if he had been
transported to fairy-land and enjoyed a happiness seldom
tasted by man. ‘I have seen,’ he said, ‘the most beautiful
scenes of my own country; I have visited the lakes of
Lucerne and Uri, where the snowy mountains descend
almost perpendicularly to the water, casting black and
impenetrable shades, which would cause a gloomy and
mournful appearance were it not for the most verdant
islands that relieve the eye by their gay appearance; I have
seen this lake agitated by a tempest, when the wind tore
up whirlwinds of water and gave you an idea of what the
water-spout must be on the great ocean; and the waves
dash with fury the base of the mountain, where the priest
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and his mistress were overwhelmed by an avalanche and
where their dying voices are still said to be heard amid the
pauses of the nightly wind; I have seen the mountains of
La Valais, and the Pays de Vaud; but this country, Victor,
pleases me more than all those wonders. The mountains of
Switzerland are more majestic and strange, but there is a
charm in the banks of this divine river that I never before
saw equalled. Look at that castle which overhangs yon
precipice; and that also on the island, almost concealed
amongst the foliage of those lovely trees; and now that
group of labourers coming from among their vines; and
that village half hid in the recess of the mountain. Oh,
surely the spirit that inhabits and guards this place has a
soul more in harmony with man than those who pile the
glacier or retire to the inaccessible peaks of the mountains
of our own country.’ Clerval! Beloved friend! Even now it
delights me to record your words and to dwell on the
praise of which you are so eminently deserving. He was a
being formed in the ‘very poetry of nature.’ His wild and
enthusiastic imagination was chastened by the sensibility of
his heart. His soul overflowed with ardent affections, and
his friendship was of that devoted and wondrous nature
that the world-minded teach us to look for only in the
imagination. But even human sympathies were not
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sufficient to satisfy his eager mind. The scenery of external
nature, which others regard only with admiration, he
loved with ardour:—
——-The sounding cataract
Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to him
An appetite; a feeling, and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, or any interest
Unborrow’d from the eye.*
[*Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey".]
And where does he now exist? Is this gentle and lovely
being lost forever? Has this mind, so replete with ideas,
imaginations fanciful and magnificent, which formed a
world, whose existence depended on the life of its creator;
— has this mind perished? Does it now only exist in my
memory? No, it is not thus; your form so divinely
wrought, and beaming with beauty, has decayed, but your
spirit still visits and consoles your unhappy friend.
Pardon this gush of sorrow; these ineffectual words are
but a slight tribute to the unexampled worth of Henry,
but they soothe my heart, overflowing with the anguish
which his remembrance creates. I will proceed with my
tale.
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Beyond Cologne we descended to the plains of
Holland; and we resolved to post the remainder of our
way, for the wind was contrary and the stream of the river
was too gentle to aid us. Our journey here lost the interest
arising from beautiful scenery, but we arrived in a few days
at Rotterdam, whence we proceeded by sea to England. It
was on a clear morning, in the latter days of December,
that I first saw the white cliffs of Britain. The banks of the
Thames presented a new scene; they were flat but fertile,
and almost every town was marked by the remembrance
of some story. We saw Tilbury Fort and remembered the
Spanish Armada, Gravesend, Woolwich, and
Greenwich— places which I had heard of even in my
country.
At length we saw the numerous steeples of London, St.
Paul’s towering above all, and the Tower famed in English
history.
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Chapter 19
London was our present point of rest; we determined
to remain several months in this wonderful and celebrated
city. Clerval desired the intercourse of the men of genius
and talent who flourished at this time, but this was with
me a secondary object; I was principally occupied with the
means of obtaining the information necessary for the
completion of my promise and quickly availed myself of
the letters of introduction that I had brought with me,
addressed to the most distinguished natural philosophers.
If this journey had taken place during my days of study
and happiness, it would have afforded me inexpressible
pleasure. But a blight had come over my existence, and I
only visited these people for the sake of the information
they might give me on the subject in which my interest
was so terribly profound. Company was irksome to me;
when alone, I could fill my mind with the sights of heaven
and earth; the voice of Henry soothed me, and I could
thus cheat myself into a transitory peace. But busy,
uninteresting, joyous faces brought back despair to my
heart. I saw an insurmountable barrier placed between me
and my fellow men; this barrier was sealed with the blood
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of William and Justine, and to reflect on the events
connected with those names filled my soul with anguish.
But in Clerval I saw the image of my former self; he
was inquisitive and anxious to gain experience and
instruction. The difference of manners which he observed
was to him an inexhaustible source of instruction and
amusement. He was also pursuing an object he had long
had in view. His design was to visit India, in the belief that
he had in his knowledge of its various languages, and in
the views he had taken of its society, the means of
materially assisting the progress of European colonization
and trade. In Britain only could he further the execution
of his plan. He was forever busy, and the only check to his
enjoyments was my sorrowful and dejected mind. I tried
to conceal this as much as possible, that I might not debar
him from the pleasures natural to one who was entering
on a new scene of life, undisturbed by any care or bitter
recollection. I often refused to accompany him, alleging
another engagement, that I might remain alone. I now
also began to collect the materials necessary for my new
creation, and this was to me like the torture of single drops
of water continually falling on the head. Every thought
that was devoted to it was an extreme anguish, and every
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word that I spoke in allusion to it caused my lips to
quiver, and my heart to palpitate.
After passing some months in London, we received a
letter from a person in Scotland who had formerly been
our visitor at Geneva. He mentioned the beauties of his
native country and asked us if those were not sufficient
allurements to induce us to prolong our journey as far
north as Perth, where he resided. Clerval eagerly desired
to accept this invitation, and I, although I abhorred
society, wished to view again mountains and streams and
all the wondrous works with which Nature adorns her
chosen dwelling-places. We had arrived in England at the
beginning of October, and it was now February. We
accordingly determined to commence our journey
towards the north at the expiration of another month. In
this expedition we did not intend to follow the great road
to Edinburgh, but to visit Windsor, Oxford, Matlock, and
the Cumberland lakes, resolving to arrive at the
completion of this tour about the end of July. I packed up
my chemical instruments and the materials I had collected,
resolving to finish my labours in some obscure nook in the
northern highlands of Scotland.
We quitted London on the 27th of March and
remained a few days at Windsor, rambling in its beautiful
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forest. This was a new scene to us mountaineers; the
majestic oaks, the quantity of game, and the herds of
stately deer were all novelties to us.
From thence we proceeded to Oxford. As we entered
this city our minds were filled with the remembrance of
the events that had been transacted there more than a
century and a half before. It was here that Charles I had
collected his forces. This city had remained faithful to him,
after the whole nation had forsaken his cause to join the
standard of Parliament and liberty. The memory of that
unfortunate king and his companions, the amiable
Falkland, the insolent Goring, his queen, and son, gave a
peculiar interest to every part of the city which they might
be supposed to have inhabited. The spirit of elder days
found a dwelling here, and we delighted to trace its
footsteps. If these feelings had not found an imaginary
gratification, the appearance of the city had yet in itself
sufficient beauty to obtain our admiration. The colleges
are ancient and picturesque; the streets are almost
magnificent; and the lovely Isis, which flows beside it
through meadows of exquisite verdure, is spread forth into
a placid expanse of waters, which reflects its majestic
assemblage of towers, and spires, and domes, embosomed
among aged trees.
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I enjoyed this scene, and yet my enjoyment was
embittered both by the memory of the past and the
anticipation of the future. I was formed for peaceful
happiness. During my youthful days discontent never
visited my mind, and if I was ever overcome by ennui, the
sight of what is beautiful in nature or the study of what is
excellent and sublime in the productions of man could
always interest my heart and communicate elasticity to my
spirits. But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my
soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit what I
shall soon cease to be—a miserable spectacle of wrecked
humanity, pitiable to others and intolerable to myself.
We passed a considerable period at Oxford, rambling
among its environs and endeavouring to identify every
spot which might relate to the most animating epoch of
English history. Our little voyages of discovery were often
prolonged by the successive objects that presented
themselves. We visited the tomb of the illustrious
Hampden and the field on which that patriot fell. For a
moment my soul was elevated from its debasing and
miserable fears to contemplate the divine ideas of liberty
and self sacrifice of which these sights were the
monuments and the remembrancers. For an instant I dared
to shake off my chains and look around me with a free and
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lofty spirit, but the iron had eaten into my flesh, and I sank
again, trembling and hopeless, into my miserable self.
We left Oxford with regret and proceeded to Matlock,
which was our next place of rest. The country in the
neighbourhood of this village resembled, to a greater
degree, the scenery of Switzerland; but everything is on a
lower scale, and the green hills want the crown of distant
white Alps which always attend on the piny mountains of
my native country. We visited the wondrous cave and the
little cabinets of natural history, where the curiosities are
disposed in the same manner as in the collections at
Servox and Chamounix. The latter name made me
tremble when pronounced by Henry, and I hastened to
quit Matlock, with which that terrible scene was thus
associated.
From Derby, still journeying northwards, we passed
two months in Cumberland and Westmorland. I could
now almost fancy myself among the Swiss mountains. The
little patches of snow which yet lingered on the northern
sides of the mountains, the lakes, and the dashing of the
rocky streams were all familiar and dear sights to me. Here
also we made some acquaintances, who almost contrived
to cheat me into happiness. The delight of Clerval was
proportionably greater than mine; his mind expanded in
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the company of men of talent, and he found in his own
nature greater capacities and resources than he could have
imagined himself to have possessed while he associated
with his inferiors. ‘I could pass my life here,’ said he to
me; ‘and among these mountains I should scarcely regret
Switzerland and the Rhine.’
But he found that a traveller’s life is one that includes
much pain amidst its enjoyments. His feelings are forever
on the stretch; and when he begins to sink into repose, he
finds himself obliged to quit that on which he rests in
pleasure for something new, which again engages his
attention, and which also he forsakes for other novelties.
We had scarcely visited the various lakes of
Cumberland and Westmorland and conceived an affection
for some of the inhabitants when the period of our
appointment with our Scotch friend approached, and we
left them to travel on. For my own part I was not sorry. I
had now neglected my promise for some time, and I
feared the effects of the daemon’s disappointment. He
might remain in Switzerland and wreak his vengeance on
my relatives. This idea pursued me and tormented me at
every moment from which I might otherwise have
snatched repose and peace. I waited for my letters with
feverish impatience; if they were delayed I was miserable
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and overcome by a thousand fears; and when they arrived
and I saw the superscription of Elizabeth or my father, I
hardly dared to read and ascertain my fate. Sometimes I
thought that the fiend followed me and might expedite
my remissness by murdering my companion. When these
thoughts possessed me, I would not quit Henry for a
moment, but followed him as his shadow, to protect him
from the fancied rage of his destroyer. I felt as if I had
committed some great crime, the consciousness of which
haunted me. I was guiltless, but I had indeed drawn down
a horrible curse upon my head, as mortal as that of crime.
I visited Edinburgh with languid eyes and mind; and
yet that city might have interested the most unfortunate
being. Clerval did not like it so well as Oxford, for the
antiquity of the latter city was more pleasing to him. But
the beauty and regularity of the new town of Edinburgh,
its romantic castle and its environs, the most delightful in
the world, Arthur’s Seat, St. Bernard’s Well, and the
Pentland Hills compensated him for the change and filled
him with cheerfulness and admiration. But I was impatient
to arrive at the termination of my journey.
We left Edinburgh in a week, passing through Coupar,
St. Andrew’s, and along the banks of the Tay, to Perth,
where our friend expected us. But I was in no mood to
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laugh and talk with strangers or enter into their feelings or
plans with the good humour expected from a guest; and
accordingly I told Clerval that I wished to make the tour
of Scotland alone. ‘Do you,’ said I, ‘enjoy yourself, and let
this be our rendezvous. I may be absent a month or two;
but do not interfere with my motions, I entreat you; leave
me to peace and solitude for a short time; and when I
return, I hope it will be with a lighter heart, more
congenial to your own temper.
Henry wished to dissuade me, but seeing me bent on
this plan, ceased to remonstrate. He entreated me to write
often. ‘I had rather be with you,’ he said, ‘in your solitary
rambles, than with these Scotch people, whom I do not
know; hasten, then, my dear friend, to return, that I may
again feel myself somewhat at home, which I cannot do in
your absence.’
Having parted from my friend, I determined to visit
some remote spot of Scotland and finish my work in
solitude. I did not doubt but that the monster followed me
and would discover himself to me when I should have
finished, that he might receive his companion. With this
resolution I traversed the northern highlands and fixed on
one of the remotest of the Orkneys as the scene of my
labours. It was a place fitted for such a work, being hardly
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more than a rock whose high sides were continually
beaten upon by the waves. The soil was barren, scarcely
affording pasture for a few miserable cows, and oatmeal for
its inhabitants, which consisted of five persons, whose
gaunt and scraggy limbs gave tokens of their miserable
fare. Vegetables and bread, when they indulged in such
luxuries, and even fresh water, was to be procured from
the mainland, which was about five miles distant.
On the whole island there were but three miserable
huts, and one of these was vacant when I arrived. This I
hired. It contained but two rooms, and these exhibited all
the squalidness of the most miserable penury. The thatch
had fallen in, the walls were unplastered, and the door was
off its hinges. I ordered it to be repaired, bought some
furniture, and took possession, an incident which would
doubtless have occasioned some surprise had not all the
senses of the cottagers been benumbed by want and
squalid poverty. As it was, I lived ungazed at and
unmolested, hardly thanked for the pittance of food and
clothes which I gave, so much does suffering blunt even
the coarsest sensations of men.
In this retreat I devoted the morning to labour; but in
the evening, when the weather permitted, I walked on the
stony beach of the sea to listen to the waves as they roared
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and dashed at my feet. It was a monotonous yet ever-
changing scene. I thought of Switzerland; it was far
different from this desolate and appalling landscape. Its hills
are covered with vines, and its cottages are scattered
thickly in the plains. Its fair lakes reflect a blue and gentle
sky, and when troubled by the winds, their tumult is but
as the play of a lively infant when compared to the
roarings of the giant ocean.
In this manner I distributed my occupations when I
first arrived, but as I proceeded in my labour, it became
every day more horrible and irksome to me. Sometimes I
could not prevail on myself to enter my laboratory for
several days, and at other times I toiled day and night in
order to complete my work. It was, indeed, a filthy
process in which I was engaged. During my first
experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me
to the horror of my employment; my mind was intently
fixed on the consummation of my labour, and my eyes
were shut to the horror of my proceedings. But now I
went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at
the work of my hands.
Thus situated, employed in the most detestable
occupation, immersed in a solitude where nothing could
for an instant call my attention from the actual scene in
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which I was engaged, my spirits became unequal; I grew
restless and nervous. Every moment I feared to meet my
persecutor. Sometimes I sat with my eyes fixed on the
ground, fearing to raise them lest they should encounter
the object which I so much dreaded to behold. I feared to
wander from the sight of my fellow creatures lest when
alone he should come to claim his companion.
In the mean time I worked on, and my labour was
already considerably advanced. I looked towards its
completion with a tremulous and eager hope, which I
dared not trust myself to question but which was
intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil that made my
heart sicken in my bosom.
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Chapter 20
I sat one evening in my laboratory; the sun had set, and
the moon was just rising from the sea; I had not sufficient
light for my employment, and I remained idle, in a pause
of consideration of whether I should leave my labour for
the night or hasten its conclusion by an unremitting
attention to it. As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me
which led me to consider the effects of what I was now
doing. Three years before, I was engaged in the same
manner and had created a fiend whose unparalleled
barbarity had desolated my heart and filled it forever with
the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another
being of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might
become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate
and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness.
He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man and hide
himself in deserts, but she had not; and she, who in all
probability was to become a thinking and reasoning
animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made
before her creation. They might even hate each other; the
creature who already lived loathed his own deformity, and
might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it
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came before his eyes in the female form? She also might
turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man;
she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by
the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own
species.
Even if they were to leave Europe and inhabit the
deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of
those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be
children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon
the earth who might make the very existence of the
species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.
Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon
everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the
sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck
senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time,
the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered
to think that future ages might curse me as their pest,
whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at
the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human
race.
I trembled and my heart failed within me, when, on
looking up, I saw by the light of the moon the daemon at
the casement. A ghastly grin wrinkled his lips as he gazed
on me, where I sat fulfilling the task which he had allotted
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to me. Yes, he had followed me in my travels; he had
loitered in forests, hid himself in caves, or taken refuge in
wide and desert heaths; and he now came to mark my
progress and claim the fulfillment of my promise.
As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the
utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a
sensation of madness on my promise of creating another
like to him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the
thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me
destroy the creature on whose future existence he
depended for happiness, and with a howl of devilish
despair and revenge, withdrew.
I left the room, and locking the door, made a solemn
vow in my own heart never to resume my labours; and
then, with trembling steps, I sought my own apartment. I
was alone; none were near me to dissipate the gloom and
relieve me from the sickening oppression of the most
terrible reveries.
Several hours passed, and I remained near my window
gazing on the sea; it was almost motionless, for the winds
were hushed, and all nature reposed under the eye of the
quiet moon. A few fishing vessels alone specked the water,
and now and then the gentle breeze wafted the sound of
voices as the fishermen called to one another. I felt the
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silence, although I was hardly conscious of its extreme
profundity, until my ear was suddenly arrested by the
paddling of oars near the shore, and a person landed close
to my house.
In a few minutes after, I heard the creaking of my door,
as if some one endeavoured to open it softly. I trembled
from head to foot; I felt a presentiment of who it was and
wished to rouse one of the peasants who dwelt in a
cottage not far from mine; but I was overcome by the
sensation of helplessness, so often felt in frightful dreams,
when you in vain endeavour to fly from an impending
danger, and was rooted to the spot.
Presently I heard the sound of footsteps along the
passage; the door opened, and the wretch whom I dreaded
appeared. Shutting the door, he approached me and said in
a smothered voice, ‘You have destroyed the work which
you began; what is it that you intend? Do you dare to
break your promise? I have endured toil and misery; I left
Switzerland with you; I crept along the shores of the
Rhine, among its willow islands and over the summits of
its hills. I have dwelt many months in the heaths of
England and among the deserts of Scotland. I have
endured incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger; do you
dare destroy my hopes?’
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‘Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create
another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness.’
‘Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have
proved yourself unworthy of my condescension.
Remember that I have power; you believe yourself
miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light
of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I
am your master; obey!’
‘The hour of my irresolution is past, and the period of
your power is arrived. Your threats cannot move me to do
an act of wickedness; but they confirm me in a
determination of not creating you a companion in vice.
Shall I, in cool blood, set loose upon the earth a daemon
whose delight is in death and wretchedness? Begone! I am
firm, and your words will only exasperate my rage.’
The monster saw my determination in my face and
gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger. ‘Shall each
man,’ cried he, ‘find a wife for his bosom, and each beast
have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection,
and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man!
You may hate, but beware! Your hours will pass in dread
and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish
from you your happiness forever. Are you to be happy
while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You
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can blast my other passions, but revenge remains—
revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die,
but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun
that gazes on your misery. Beware, for I am fearless and
therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a
snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall
repent of the injuries you inflict.’
‘Devil, cease; and do not poison the air with these
sounds of malice. I have declared my resolution to you,
and I am no coward to bend beneath words. Leave me; I
am inexorable.’
‘It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on
your wedding-night.’
I started forward and exclaimed, ‘Villain! Before you
sign my death-warrant, be sure that you are yourself safe.’
I would have seized him, but he eluded me and quitted
the house with precipitation. In a few moments I saw him
in his boat, which shot across the waters with an arrowy
swiftness and was soon lost amidst the waves.
All was again silent, but his words rang in my ears. I
burned with rage to pursue the murderer of my peace and
precipitate him into the ocean. I walked up and down my
room hastily and perturbed, while my imagination
conjured up a thousand images to torment and sting me.
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Why had I not followed him and closed with him in
mortal strife? But I had suffered him to depart, and he had
directed his course towards the mainland. I shuddered to
think who might be the next victim sacrificed to his
insatiate revenge. And then I thought again of his words—
‘*I will be with you on your wedding-night*.’ That, then,
was the period fixed for the fulfillment of my destiny. In
that hour I should die and at once satisfy and extinguish
his malice. The prospect did not move me to fear; yet
when I thought of my beloved Elizabeth, of her tears and
endless sorrow, when she should find her lover so
barbarously snatched from her, tears, the first I had shed
for many months, streamed from my eyes, and I resolved
not to fall before my enemy without a bitter struggle.
The night passed away, and the sun rose from the
ocean; my feelings became calmer, if it may be called
calmness when the violence of rage sinks into the depths
of despair. I left the house, the horrid scene of the last
night’s contention, and walked on the beach of the sea,
which I almost regarded as an insuperable barrier between
me and my fellow creatures; nay, a wish that such should
prove the fact stole across me. I desired that I might pass
my life on that barren rock, wearily, it is true, but
uninterrupted by any sudden shock of misery. If I
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returned, it was to be sacrificed or to see those whom I
most loved die under the grasp of a daemon whom I had
myself created.
I walked about the isle like a restless spectre, separated
from all it loved and miserable in the separation. When it
became noon, and the sun rose higher, I lay down on the
grass and was overpowered by a deep sleep. I had been
awake the whole of the preceding night, my nerves were
agitated, and my eyes inflamed by watching and misery.
The sleep into which I now sank refreshed me; and when
I awoke, I again felt as if I belonged to a race of human
beings like myself, and I began to reflect upon what had
passed with greater composure; yet still the words of the
fiend rang in my ears like a death-knell; they appeared like
a dream, yet distinct and oppressive as a reality.
The sun had far descended, and I still sat on the shore,
satisfying my appetite, which had become ravenous, with
an oaten cake, when I saw a fishing-boat land close to me,
and one of the men brought me a packet; it contained
letters from Geneva, and one from Clerval entreating me
to join him. He said that he was wearing away his time
fruitlessly where he was, that letters from the friends he
had formed in London desired his return to complete the
negotiation they had entered into for his Indian enterprise.
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He could not any longer delay his departure; but as his
journey to London might be followed, even sooner than
he now conjectured, by his longer voyage, he entreated
me to bestow as much of my society on him as I could
spare. He besought me, therefore, to leave my solitary isle
and to meet him at Perth, that we might proceed
southwards together. This letter in a degree recalled me to
life, and I determined to quit my island at the expiration of
two days.
Yet, before I departed, there was a task to perform, on
which I shuddered to reflect; I must pack up my chemical
instruments, and for that purpose I must enter the room
which had been the scene of my odious work, and I must
handle those utensils the sight of which was sickening to
me. The next morning, at daybreak, I summoned
sufficient courage and unlocked the door of my
laboratory. The remains of the half-finished creature,
whom I had destroyed, lay scattered on the floor, and I
almost felt as if I had mangled the living flesh of a human
being. I paused to collect myself and then entered the
chamber. With trembling hand I conveyed the
instruments out of the room, but I reflected that I ought
not to leave the relics of my work to excite the horror and
suspicion of the peasants; and I accordingly put them into
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a basket, with a great quantity of stones, and laying them
up, determined to throw them into the sea that very night;
and in the meantime I sat upon the beach, employed in
cleaning and arranging my chemical apparatus.
Nothing could be more complete than the alteration
that had taken place in my feelings since the night of the
appearance of the daemon. I had before regarded my
promise with a gloomy despair as a thing that, with
whatever consequences, must be fulfilled; but I now felt as
if a film had been taken from before my eyes and that I for
the first time saw clearly. The idea of renewing my labours
did not for one instant occur to me; the threat I had heard
weighed on my thoughts, but I did not reflect that a
voluntary act of mine could avert it. I had resolved in my
own mind that to create another like the fiend I had first
made would be an act of the basest and most atrocious
selfishness, and I banished from my mind every thought
that could lead to a different conclusion.
Between two and three in the morning the moon rose;
and I then, putting my basket aboard a little skiff, sailed
out about four miles from the shore. The scene was
perfectly solitary; a few boats were returning towards land,
but I sailed away from them. I felt as if I was about the
commission of a dreadful crime and avoided with
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shuddering anxiety any encounter with my fellow
creatures. At one time the moon, which had before been
clear, was suddenly overspread by a thick cloud, and I
took advantage of the moment of darkness and cast my
basket into the sea; I listened to the gurgling sound as it
sank and then sailed away from the spot. The sky became
clouded, but the air was pure, although chilled by the
northeast breeze that was then rising. But it refreshed me
and filled me with such agreeable sensations that I resolved
to prolong my stay on the water, and fixing the rudder in
a direct position, stretched myself at the bottom of the
boat. Clouds hid the moon, everything was obscure, and I
heard only the sound of the boat as its keel cut through
the waves; the murmur lulled me, and in a short time I
slept soundly.
I do not know how long I remained in this situation,
but when I awoke I found that the sun had already
mounted considerably. The wind was high, and the waves
continually threatened the safety of my little skiff. I found
that the wind was northeast and must have driven me far
from the coast from which I had embarked. I endeavoured
to change my course but quickly found that if I again
made the attempt the boat would be instantly filled with
water. Thus situated, my only resource was to drive before
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the wind. I confess that I felt a few sensations of terror. I
had no compass with me and was so slenderly acquainted
with the geography of this part of the world that the sun
was of little benefit to me. I might be driven into the wide
Atlantic and feel all the tortures of starvation or be
swallowed up in the immeasurable waters that roared and
buffeted around me. I had already been out many hours
and felt the torment of a burning thirst, a prelude to my
other sufferings. I looked on the heavens, which were
covered by clouds that flew before the wind, only to be
replaced by others; I looked upon the sea; it was to be my
grave. ‘Fiend,’ I exclaimed, ‘your task is already fulfilled!’ I
thought of Elizabeth, of my father, and of Clerval—all left
behind, on whom the monster might satisfy his sanguinary
and merciless passions. This idea plunged me into a reverie
so despairing and frightful that even now, when the scene
is on the point of closing before me forever, I shudder to
reflect on it.
Some hours passed thus; but by degrees, as the sun
declined towards the horizon, the wind died away into a
gentle breeze and the sea became free from breakers. But
these gave place to a heavy swell; I felt sick and hardly able
to hold the rudder, when suddenly I saw a line of high
land towards the south.
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Almost spent, as I was, by fatigue and the dreadful
suspense I endured for several hours, this sudden certainty
of life rushed like a flood of warm joy to my heart, and
tears gushed from my eyes.
How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that
clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!
I constructed another sail with a part of my dress and
eagerly steered my course towards the land. It had a wild
and rocky appearance, but as I approached nearer I easily
perceived the traces of cultivation. I saw vessels near the
shore and found myself suddenly transported back to the
neighbourhood of civilized man. I carefully traced the
windings of the land and hailed a steeple which I at length
saw issuing from behind a small promontory. As I was in a
state of extreme debility, I resolved to sail directly towards
the town, as a place where I could most easily procure
nourishment. Fortunately I had money with me. As I
turned the promontory I perceived a small neat town and
a good harbour, which I entered, my heart bounding with
joy at my unexpected escape.
As I was occupied in fixing the boat and arranging the
sails, several people crowded towards the spot. They
seemed much surprised at my appearance, but instead of
offering me any assistance, whispered together with
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gestures that at any other time might have produced in me
a slight sensation of alarm. As it was, I merely remarked
that they spoke English, and I therefore addressed them in
that language. ‘My good friends,’ said I, ‘will you be so
kind as to tell me the name of this town and inform me
where I am?’
‘You will know that soon enough,’ replied a man with
a hoarse voice. ‘Maybe you are come to a place that will
not prove much to your taste, but you will not be
consulted as to your quarters, I promise you.’
I was exceedingly surprised on receiving so rude an
answer from a stranger, and I was also disconcerted on
perceiving the frowning and angry countenances of his
companions. ‘Why do you answer me so roughly?’ I
replied. ‘Surely it is not the custom of Englishmen to
receive strangers so inhospitably.’
‘I do not know,’ said the man, ‘what the custom of the
English may be, but it is the custom of the Irish to hate
villains.’
While this strange dialogue continued, I perceived the
crowd rapidly increase. Their faces expressed a mixture of
curiosity and anger, which annoyed and in some degree
alarmed me. I inquired the way to the inn, but no one
replied. I then moved forward, and a murmuring sound
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arose from the crowd as they followed and surrounded
me, when an ill-looking man approaching tapped me on
the shoulder and said, ‘Come, sir, you must follow me to
Mr. Kirwin’s to give an account of yourself.’
‘Who is Mr. Kirwin? Why am I to give an account of
myself? Is not this a free country?’
‘Ay, sir, free enough for honest folks. Mr. Kirwin is a
magistrate, and you are to give an account of the death of
a gentleman who was found murdered here last night.’
This answer startled me, but I presently recovered
myself. I was innocent; that could easily be proved;
accordingly I followed my conductor in silence and was
led to one of the best houses in the town. I was ready to
sink from fatigue and hunger, but being surrounded by a
crowd, I thought it politic to rouse all my strength, that no
physical debility might be construed into apprehension or
conscious guilt. Little did I then expect the calamity that
was in a few moments to overwhelm me and extinguish in
horror and despair all fear of ignominy or death.
I must pause here, for it requires all my fortitude to
recall the memory of the frightful events which I am about
to relate, in proper detail, to my recollection.
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Chapter 21
I was soon introduced into the presence of the
magistrate, an old benevolent man with calm and mild
manners. He looked upon me, however, with some
degree of severity, and then, turning towards my
conductors, he asked who appeared as witnesses on this
occasion.
About half a dozen men came forward; and, one being
selected by the magistrate, he deposed that he had been
out fishing the night before with his son and brother-in-
law, Daniel Nugent, when, about ten o’clock, they
observed a strong northerly blast rising, and they
accordingly put in for port. It was a very dark night, as the
moon had not yet risen; they did not land at the harbour,
but, as they had been accustomed, at a creek about two
miles below. He walked on first, carrying a part of the
fishing tackle, and his companions followed him at some
distance. As he was proceeding along the sands, he struck
his foot against something and fell at his length on the
ground. His companions came up to assist him, and by the
light of their lantern they found that he had fallen on the
body of a man, who was to all appearance dead. Their first
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supposition was that it was the corpse of some person who
had been drowned and was thrown on shore by the
waves, but on examination they found that the clothes
were not wet and even that the body was not then cold.
They instantly carried it to the cottage of an old woman
near the spot and endeavoured, but in vain, to restore it to
life. It appeared to be a handsome young man, about five
and twenty years of age. He had apparently been strangled,
for there was no sign of any violence except the black
mark of fingers on his neck.
The first part of this deposition did not in the least
interest me, but when the mark of the fingers was
mentioned I remembered the murder of my brother and
felt myself extremely agitated; my limbs trembled, and a
mist came over my eyes, which obliged me to lean on a
chair for support. The magistrate observed me with a keen
eye and of course drew an unfavourable augury from my
manner.
The son confirmed his father’s account, but when
Daniel Nugent was called he swore positively that just
before the fall of his companion, he saw a boat, with a
single man in it, at a short distance from the shore; and as
far as he could judge by the light of a few stars, it was the
same boat in which I had just landed.
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A woman deposed that she lived near the beach and
was standing at the door of her cottage, waiting for the
return of the fishermen, about an hour before she heard of
the discovery of the body, when she saw a boat with only
one man in it push off from that part of the shore where
the corpse was afterwards found.
Another woman confirmed the account of the
fishermen having brought the body into her house; it was
not cold. They put it into a bed and rubbed it, and Daniel
went to the town for an apothecary, but life was quite
gone.
Several other men were examined concerning my
landing, and they agreed that, with the strong north wind
that had arisen during the night, it was very probable that I
had beaten about for many hours and had been obliged to
return nearly to the same spot from which I had departed.
Besides, they observed that it appeared that I had brought
the body from another place, and it was likely that as I did
not appear to know the shore, I might have put into the
harbour ignorant of the distance of the town of—— from
the place where I had deposited the corpse.
Mr. Kirwin, on hearing this evidence, desired that I
should be taken into the room where the body lay for
interment, that it might be observed what effect the sight
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of it would produce upon me. This idea was probably
suggested by the extreme agitation I had exhibited when
the mode of the murder had been described. I was
accordingly conducted, by the magistrate and several other
persons, to the inn. I could not help being struck by the
strange coincidences that had taken place during this
eventful night; but, knowing that I had been conversing
with several persons in the island I had inhabited about the
time that the body had been found, I was perfectly
tranquil as to the consequences of the affair.
I entered the room where the corpse lay and was led up
to the coffin. How can I describe my sensations on
beholding it? I feel yet parched with horror, nor can I
reflect on that terrible moment without shuddering and
agony. The examination, the presence of the magistrate
and witnesses, passed like a dream from my memory when
I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before
me. I gasped for breath, and throwing myself on the body,
I exclaimed, ‘Have my murderous machinations deprived
you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already
destroyed; other victims await their destiny; but you,
Clerval, my friend, my benefactor—‘
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The human frame could no longer support the agonies
that I endured, and I was carried out of the room in strong
convulsions.
A fever succeeded to this. I lay for two months on the
point of death; my ravings, as I afterwards heard, were
frightful; I called myself the murderer of William, of
Justine, and of Clerval. Sometimes I entreated my
attendants to assist me in the destruction of the fiend by
whom I was tormented; and at others I felt the fingers of
the monster already grasping my neck, and screamed aloud
with agony and terror. Fortunately, as I spoke my native
language, Mr. Kirwin alone understood me; but my
gestures and bitter cries were sufficient to affright the other
witnesses.
Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was
before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest?
Death snatches away many blooming children, the only
hopes of their doting parents; how many brides and
youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health
and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of
the tomb! Of what materials was I made that I could thus
resist so many shocks, which, like the turning of the
wheel, continually renewed the torture?
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But I was doomed to live and in two months found
myself as awaking from a dream, in a prison, stretched on
a wretched bed, surrounded by jailers, turnkeys, bolts, and
all the miserable apparatus of a dungeon. It was morning, I
remember, when I thus awoke to understanding; I had
forgotten the particulars of what had happened and only
felt as if some great misfortune had suddenly overwhelmed
me; but when I looked around and saw the barred
windows and the squalidness of the room in which I was,
all flashed across my memory and I groaned bitterly.
This sound disturbed an old woman who was sleeping
in a chair beside me. She was a hired nurse, the wife of
one of the turnkeys, and her countenance expressed all
those bad qualities which often characterize that class. The
lines of her face were hard and rude, like that of persons
accustomed to see without sympathizing in sights of
misery. Her tone expressed her entire indifference; she
addressed me in English, and the voice struck me as one
that I had heard during my sufferings. ‘Are you better
now, sir?’ said she.
I replied in the same language, with a feeble voice, ‘I
believe I am; but if it be all true, if indeed I did not dream,
I am sorry that I am still alive to feel this misery and
horror.’
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‘For that matter,’ replied the old woman, ‘if you mean
about the gentleman you murdered, I believe that it were
better for you if you were dead, for I fancy it will go hard
with you! However, that’s none of my business; I am sent
to nurse you and get you well; I do my duty with a safe
conscience; it were well if everybody did the same.’
I turned with loathing from the woman who could
utter so unfeeling a speech to a person just saved, on the
very edge of death; but I felt languid and unable to reflect
on all that had passed. The whole series of my life
appeared to me as a dream; I sometimes doubted if indeed
it were all true, for it never presented itself to my mind
with the force of reality.
As the images that floated before me became more
distinct, I grew feverish; a darkness pressed around me; no
one was near me who soothed me with the gentle voice of
love; no dear hand supported me. The physician came and
prescribed medicines, and the old woman prepared them
for me; but utter carelessness was visible in the first, and
the expression of brutality was strongly marked in the
visage of the second. Who could be interested in the fate
of a murderer but the hangman who would gain his fee?
These were my first reflections, but I soon learned that
Mr. Kirwin had shown me extreme kindness. He had
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caused the best room in the prison to be prepared for me
(wretched indeed was the best); and it was he who had
provided a physician and a nurse. It is true, he seldom
came to see me, for although he ardently desired to relieve
the sufferings of every human creature, he did not wish to
be present at the agonies and miserable ravings of a
murderer. He came, therefore, sometimes to see that I was
not neglected, but his visits were short and with long
intervals.
One day, while I was gradually recovering, I was seated
in a chair, my eyes half open and my cheeks livid like
those in death. I was overcome by gloom and misery and
often reflected I had better seek death than desire to
remain in a world which to me was replete with
wretchedness. At one time I considered whether I should
not declare myself guilty and suffer the penalty of the law,
less innocent than poor Justine had been. Such were my
thoughts when the door of my apartment was opened and
Mr. Kirwin entered. His countenance expressed sympathy
and compassion; he drew a chair close to mine and
addressed me in French, ‘I fear that this place is very
shocking to you; can I do anything to make you more
comfortable?’
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‘I thank you, but all that you mention is nothing to me;
on the whole earth there is no comfort which I am
capable of receiving.’
‘I know that the sympathy of a stranger can be but of
little relief to one borne down as you are by so strange a
misfortune. But you will, I hope, soon quit this
melancholy abode, for doubtless evidence can easily be
brought to free you from the criminal charge.’
‘That is my least concern; I am, by a course of strange
events, become the most miserable of mortals. Persecuted
and tortured as I am and have been, can death be any evil
to me?’
‘Nothing indeed could be more unfortunate and
agonizing than the strange chances that have lately
occurred. You were thrown, by some surprising accident,
on this shore, renowned for its hospitality, seized
immediately, and charged with murder. The first sight that
was presented to your eyes was the body of your friend,
murdered in so unaccountable a manner and placed, as it
were, by some fiend across your path.’
As Mr. Kirwin said this, notwithstanding the agitation I
endured on this retrospect of my sufferings, I also felt
considerable surprise at the knowledge he seemed to
possess concerning me. I suppose some astonishment was
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exhibited in my countenance, for Mr. Kirwin hastened to
say, ‘Immediately upon your being taken ill, all the papers
that were on your person were brought me, and I
examined them that I might discover some trace by which
I could send to your relations an account of your
misfortune and illness. I found several letters, and, among
others, one which I discovered from its commencement to
be from your father. I instantly wrote to Geneva; nearly
two months have elapsed since the departure of my letter.
But you are ill; even now you tremble; you are unfit for
agitation of any kind.’
‘This suspense is a thousand times worse than the most
horrible event; tell me what new scene of death has been
acted, and whose murder I am now to lament?’
‘Your family is perfectly well,’ said Mr. Kirwin with
gentleness; ‘and someone, a friend, is come to visit you.’
I know not by what chain of thought the idea
presented itself, but it instantly darted into my mind that
the murderer had come to mock at my misery and taunt
me with the death of Clerval, as a new incitement for me
to comply with his hellish desires. I put my hand before
my eyes, and cried out in agony, ‘Oh! Take him away! I
cannot see him; for God’s sake, do not let him enter!’
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Mr. Kirwin regarded me with a troubled countenance.
He could not help regarding my exclamation as a
presumption of my guilt and said in rather a severe tone, ‘I
should have thought, young man, that the presence of
your father would have been welcome instead of inspiring
such violent repugnance.’
‘My father!’ cried I, while every feature and every
muscle was relaxed from anguish to pleasure. ‘Is my father
indeed come? How kind, how very kind! But where is he,
why does he not hasten to me?’
My change of manner surprised and pleased the
magistrate; perhaps he thought that my former
exclamation was a momentary return of delirium, and
now he instantly resumed his former benevolence. He rose
and quitted the room with my nurse, and in a moment my
father entered it.
Nothing, at this moment, could have given me greater
pleasure than the arrival of my father. I stretched out my
hand to him and cried, ‘Are you, then, safe—and
Elizabeth—and Ernest?’
My father calmed me with assurances of their welfare
and endeavoured, by dwelling on these subjects so
interesting to my heart, to raise my desponding spirits; but
he soon felt that a prison cannot be the abode of
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cheerfulness. ‘What a place is this that you inhabit, my
son!’ said he, looking mournfully at the barred windows
and wretched appearance of the room. ‘You travelled to
seek happiness, but a fatality seems to pursue you. And
poor Clerval—‘
The name of my unfortunate and murdered friend was
an agitation too great to be endured in my weak state; I
shed tears.
‘Alas! Yes, my father,’ replied I; ‘some destiny of the
most horrible kind hangs over me, and I must live to fulfil
it, or surely I should have died on the coffin of Henry.’
We were not allowed to converse for any length of
time, for the precarious state of my health rendered every
precaution necessary that could ensure tranquillity. Mr.
Kirwin came in and insisted that my strength should not
be exhausted by too much exertion. But the appearance of
my father was to me like that of my good angel, and I
gradually recovered my health.
As my sickness quitted me, I was absorbed by a gloomy
and black melancholy that nothing could dissipate. The
image of Clerval was forever before me, ghastly and
murdered. More than once the agitation into which these
reflections threw me made my friends dread a dangerous
relapse. Alas! Why did they preserve so miserable and
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detested a life? It was surely that I might fulfil my destiny,
which is now drawing to a close. Soon, oh, very soon,
will death extinguish these throbbings and relieve me from
the mighty weight of anguish that bears me to the dust;
and, in executing the award of justice, I shall also sink to
rest. Then the appearance of death was distant, although
the wish was ever present to my thoughts; and I often sat
for hours motionless and speechless, wishing for some
mighty revolution that might bury me and my destroyer
in its ruins.
The season of the assizes approached. I had already
been three months in prison, and although I was still weak
and in continual danger of a relapse, I was obliged to travel
nearly a hundred miles to the country town where the
court was held. Mr. Kirwin charged himself with every
care of collecting witnesses and arranging my defence. I
was spared the disgrace of appearing publicly as a criminal,
as the case was not brought before the court that decides
on life and death. The grand jury rejected the bill, on its
being proved that I was on the Orkney Islands at the hour
the body of my friend was found; and a fortnight after my
removal I was liberated from prison.
My father was enraptured on finding me freed from the
vexations of a criminal charge, that I was again allowed to
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breathe the fresh atmosphere and permitted to return to
my native country. I did not participate in these feelings,
for to me the walls of a dungeon or a palace were alike
hateful. The cup of life was poisoned forever, and
although the sun shone upon me, as upon the happy and
gay of heart, I saw around me nothing but a dense and
frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer
of two eyes that glared upon me. Sometimes they were
the expressive eyes of Henry, languishing in death, the
dark orbs nearly covered by the lids and the long black
lashes that fringed them; sometimes it was the watery,
clouded eyes of the monster, as I first saw them in my
chamber at Ingolstadt.
My father tried to awaken in me the feelings of
affection. He talked of Geneva, which I should soon visit,
of Elizabeth and Ernest; but these words only drew deep
groans from me. Sometimes, indeed, I felt a wish for
happiness and thought with melancholy delight of my
beloved cousin or longed, with a devouring *maladie du
pays*, to see once more the blue lake and rapid Rhone,
that had been so dear to me in early childhood; but my
general state of feeling was a torpor in which a prison was
as welcome a residence as the divinest scene in nature; and
these fits were seldom interrupted but by paroxysms of
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anguish and despair. At these moments I often
endeavoured to put an end to the existence I loathed, and
it required unceasing attendance and vigilance to restrain
me from committing some dreadful act of violence.
Yet one duty remained to me, the recollection of
which finally triumphed over my selfish despair. It was
necessary that I should return without delay to Geneva,
there to watch over the lives of those I so fondly loved
and to lie in wait for the murderer, that if any chance led
me to the place of his concealment, or if he dared again to
blast me by his presence, I might, with unfailing aim, put
an end to the existence of the monstrous image which I
had endued with the mockery of a soul still more
monstrous. My father still desired to delay our departure,
fearful that I could not sustain the fatigues of a journey, for
I was a shattered wreck—the shadow of a human being.
My strength was gone. I was a mere skeleton, and fever
night and day preyed upon my wasted frame.
Still, as I urged our leaving Ireland with such
inquietude and impatience, my father thought it best to
yield. We took our passage on board a vessel bound for
Havre-de-Grace and sailed with a fair wind from the Irish
shores. It was midnight. I lay on the deck looking at the
stars and listening to the dashing of the waves. I hailed the
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darkness that shut Ireland from my sight, and my pulse
beat with a feverish joy when I reflected that I should
soon see Geneva. The past appeared to me in the light of a
frightful dream; yet the vessel in which I was, the wind
that blew me from the detested shore of Ireland, and the
sea which surrounded me told me too forcibly that I was
deceived by no vision and that Clerval, my friend and
dearest companion, had fallen a victim to me and the
monster of my creation. I repassed, in my memory, my
whole life—my quiet happiness while residing with my
family in Geneva, the death of my mother, and my
departure for Ingolstadt. I remembered, shuddering, the
mad enthusiasm that hurried me on to the creation of my
hideous enemy, and I called to mind the night in which
he first lived. I was unable to pursue the train of thought; a
thousand feelings pressed upon me, and I wept bitterly.
Ever since my recovery from the fever I had been in
the custom of taking every night a small quantity of
laudanum, for it was by means of this drug only that I was
enabled to gain the rest necessary for the preservation of
life. Oppressed by the recollection of my various
misfortunes, I now swallowed double my usual quantity
and soon slept profoundly. But sleep did not afford me
respite from thought and misery; my dreams presented a
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thousand objects that scared me. Towards morning I was
possessed by a kind of nightmare; I felt the fiend’s grasp in
my neck and could not free myself from it; groans and
cries rang in my ears. My father, who was watching over
me, perceiving my restlessness, awoke me; the dashing
waves were around, the cloudy sky above, the fiend was
not here: a sense of security, a feeling that a truce was
established between the present hour and the irresistible,
disastrous future imparted to me a kind of calm
forgetfulness, of which the human mind is by its structure
peculiarly susceptible.
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Chapter 22
The voyage came to an end. We landed, and
proceeded to Paris. I soon found that I had overtaxed my
strength and that I must repose before I could continue
my journey. My father’s care and attentions were
indefatigable, but he did not know the origin of my
sufferings and sought erroneous methods to remedy the
incurable ill. He wished me to seek amusement in society.
I abhorred the face of man. Oh, not abhorred! They were
my brethren, my fellow beings, and I felt attracted even to
the most repulsive among them, as to creatures of an
angelic nature and celestial mechanism. But I felt that I
had no right to share their intercourse. I had unchained an
enemy among them whose joy it was to shed their blood
and to revel in their groans. How they would, each and
all, abhor me and hunt me from the world did they know
my unhallowed acts and the crimes which had their source
in me!
My father yielded at length to my desire to avoid
society and strove by various arguments to banish my
despair. Sometimes he thought that I felt deeply the
degradation of being obliged to answer a charge of
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murder, and he endeavoured to prove to me the futility of
pride.
‘Alas! My father,’ said I, ‘how little do you know me.
Human beings, their feelings and passions, would indeed
be degraded if such a wretch as I felt pride. Justine, poor
unhappy Justine, was as innocent as I, and she suffered the
same charge; she died for it; and I am the cause of this—I
murdered her. William, Justine, and Henry—they all died
by my hands.’
My father had often, during my imprisonment, heard
me make the same assertion; when I thus accused myself,
he sometimes seemed to desire an explanation, and at
others he appeared to consider it as the offspring of
delirium, and that, during my illness, some idea of this
kind had presented itself to my imagination, the
remembrance of which I preserved in my convalescence. I
avoided explanation and maintained a continual silence
concerning the wretch I had created. I had a persuasion
that I should be supposed mad, and this in itself would
forever have chained my tongue. But, besides, I could not
bring myself to disclose a secret which would fill my
hearer with consternation and make fear and unnatural
horror the inmates of his breast. I checked, therefore, my
impatient thirst for sympathy and was silent when I would
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have given the world to have confided the fatal secret.
Yet, still, words like those I have recorded would burst
uncontrollably from me. I could offer no explanation of
them, but their truth in part relieved the burden of my
mysterious woe.
Upon this occasion my father said, with an expression
of unbounded wonder, ‘My dearest Victor, what
infatuation is this? My dear son, I entreat you never to
make such an assertion again.’
‘I am not mad,’ I cried energetically; ‘the sun and the
heavens, who have viewed my operations, can bear
witness of my truth. I am the assassin of those most
innocent victims; they died by my machinations. A
thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by
drop, to have saved their lives; but I could not, my father,
indeed I could not sacrifice the whole human race.’
The conclusion of this speech convinced my father that
my ideas were deranged, and he instantly changed the
subject of our conversation and endeavoured to alter the
course of my thoughts. He wished as much as possible to
obliterate the memory of the scenes that had taken place
in Ireland and never alluded to them or suffered me to
speak of my misfortunes.
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As time passed away I became more calm; misery had
her dwelling in my heart, but I no longer talked in the
same incoherent manner of my own crimes; sufficient for
me was the consciousness of them. By the utmost self-
violence I curbed the imperious voice of wretchedness,
which sometimes desired to declare itself to the whole
world, and my manners were calmer and more composed
than they had ever been since my journey to the sea of
ice.
A few days before we left Paris on our way to
Switzerland I received the following letter from Elizabeth:
My dear Friend,
It gave me the greatest pleasure to receive a letter from
my uncle dated at Paris; you are no longer at a formidable
distance, and I may hope to see you in less than a
fortnight. My poor cousin, how much you must have
suffered! I expect to see you looking even more ill than
when you quitted Geneva. This winter has been passed
most miserably, tortured as I have been by anxious
suspense; yet I hope to see peace in your countenance and
to find that your heart is not totally void of comfort and
tranquillity.
Yet I fear that the same feelings now exist that made
you so miserable a year ago, even perhaps augmented by
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time. I would not disturb you at this period, when so
many misfortunes weigh upon you, but a conversation
that I had with my uncle previous to his departure renders
some explanation necessary before we meet.
Explanation! You may possibly say, What can Elizabeth
have to explain? If you really say this, my questions are
answered and all my doubts satisfied. But you are distant
from me, and it is possible that you may dread and yet be
pleased with this explanation; and in a probability of this
being the case, I dare not any longer postpone writing
what, during your absence, I have often wished to express
to you but have never had the courage to begin.
You well know, Victor, that our union had been the
favourite plan of your parents ever since our infancy. We
were told this when young, and taught to look forward to
it as an event that would certainly take place. We were
affectionate playfellows during childhood, and, I believe,
dear and valued friends to one another as we grew older.
But as brother and sister often entertain a lively affection
towards each other without desiring a more intimate
union, may not such also be our case? Tell me, dearest
Victor. Answer me, I conjure you by our mutual
happiness, with simple truth— Do you not love another?
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You have travelled; you have spent several years of
your life at Ingolstadt; and I confess to you, my friend, that
when I saw you last autumn so unhappy, flying to solitude
from the society of every creature, I could not help
supposing that you might regret our connection and
believe yourself bound in honour to fulfil the wishes of
your parents, although they opposed themselves to your
inclinations. But this is false reasoning. I confess to you,
my friend, that I love you and that in my airy dreams of
futurity you have been my constant friend and
companion. But it is your happiness I desire as well as my
own when I declare to you that our marriage would
render me eternally miserable unless it were the dictate of
your own free choice. Even now I weep to think that,
borne down as you are by the cruellest misfortunes, you
may stifle, by the word ‘honour,’ all hope of that love and
happiness which would alone restore you to yourself. I,
who have so disinterested an affection for you, may
increase your miseries tenfold by being an obstacle to your
wishes. Ah! Victor, be assured that your cousin and
playmate has too sincere a love for you not to be made
miserable by this supposition. Be happy, my friend; and if
you obey me in this one request, remain satisfied that
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nothing on earth will have the power to interrupt my
tranquillity.
Do not let this letter disturb you; do not answer
tomorrow, or the next day, or even until you come, if it
will give you pain. My uncle will send me news of your
health, and if I see but one smile on your lips when we
meet, occasioned by this or any other exertion of mine, I
shall need no other happiness.
Elizabeth Lavenza
Geneva, May 18th, 17—
This letter revived in my memory what I had before
forgotten, the threat of the fiend—‘*I will be with you on
your wedding-night!*’ Such was my sentence, and on that
night would the daemon employ every art to destroy me
and tear me from the glimpse of happiness which
promised partly to console my sufferings. On that night he
had determined to consummate his crimes by my death.
Well, be it so; a deadly struggle would then assuredly take
place, in which if he were victorious I should be at peace
and his power over me be at an end. If he were
vanquished, I should be a free man. Alas! What freedom?
Such as the peasant enjoys when his family have been
massacred before his eyes, his cottage burnt, his lands laid
waste, and he is turned adrift, homeless, penniless, and
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alone, but free. Such would be my liberty except that in
my Elizabeth I possessed a treasure, alas, balanced by those
horrors of remorse and guilt which would pursue me until
death.
Sweet and beloved Elizabeth! I read and reread her
letter, and some softened feelings stole into my heart and
dared to whisper paradisiacal dreams of love and joy; but
the apple was already eaten, and the angel’s arm bared to
drive me from all hope. Yet I would die to make her
happy. If the monster executed his threat, death was
inevitable; yet, again, I considered whether my marriage
would hasten my fate. My destruction might indeed arrive
a few months sooner, but if my torturer should suspect
that I postponed it, influenced by his menaces, he would
surely find other and perhaps more dreadful means of
revenge. He had vowed *to be with me on my wedding-
night*, yet he did not consider that threat as binding him
to peace in the meantime, for as if to show me that he was
not yet satiated with blood, he had murdered Clerval
immediately after the enunciation of his threats. I resolved,
therefore, that if my immediate union with my cousin
would conduce either to hers or my father’s happiness, my
adversary’s designs against my life should not retard it a
single hour.
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In this state of mind I wrote to Elizabeth. My letter was
calm and affectionate. ‘I fear, my beloved girl,’ I said, ‘little
happiness remains for us on earth; yet all that I may one
day enjoy is centred in you. Chase away your idle fears; to
you alone do I consecrate my life and my endeavours for
contentment. I have one secret, Elizabeth, a dreadful one;
when revealed to you, it will chill your frame with horror,
and then, far from being surprised at my misery, you will
only wonder that I survive what I have endured. I will
confide this tale of misery and terror to you the day after
our marriage shall take place, for, my sweet cousin, there
must be perfect confidence between us. But until then, I
conjure you, do not mention or allude to it. This I most
earnestly entreat, and I know you will comply.’
In about a week after the arrival of Elizabeth’s letter we
returned to Geneva. The sweet girl welcomed me with
warm affection, yet tears were in her eyes as she beheld
my emaciated frame and feverish cheeks. I saw a change in
her also. She was thinner and had lost much of that
heavenly vivacity that had before charmed me; but her
gentleness and soft looks of compassion made her a more
fit companion for one blasted and miserable as I was.
The tranquillity which I now enjoyed did not endure.
Memory brought madness with it, and when I thought of
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what had passed, a real insanity possessed me; sometimes I
was furious and burnt with rage, sometimes low and
despondent. I neither spoke nor looked at anyone, but sat
motionless, bewildered by the multitude of miseries that
overcame me.
Elizabeth alone had the power to draw me from these
fits; her gentle voice would soothe me when transported
by passion and inspire me with human feelings when sunk
in torpor. She wept with me and for me. When reason
returned, she would remonstrate and endeavour to inspire
me with resignation. Ah! It is well for the unfortunate to
be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace. The
agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise
sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief.
Soon after my arrival my father spoke of my immediate
marriage with Elizabeth. I remained silent.
‘Have you, then, some other attachment?’
‘None on earth. I love Elizabeth and look forward to
our union with delight. Let the day therefore be fixed; and
on it I will consecrate myself, in life or death, to the
happiness of my cousin.’
‘My dear Victor, do not speak thus. Heavy misfortunes
have befallen us, but let us only cling closer to what
remains and transfer our love for those whom we have lost
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to those who yet live. Our circle will be small but bound
close by the ties of affection and mutual misfortune. And
when time shall have softened your despair, new and dear
objects of care will be born to replace those of whom we
have been so cruelly deprived.’
Such were the lessons of my father. But to me the
remembrance of the threat returned; nor can you wonder
that, omnipotent as the fiend had yet been in his deeds of
blood, I should almost regard him as invincible, and that
when he had pronounced the words ‘*I shall be with you
on your wedding-night*,’ I should regard the threatened
fate as unavoidable. But death was no evil to me if the loss
of Elizabeth were balanced with it, and I therefore, with a
contented and even cheerful countenance, agreed with my
father that if my cousin would consent, the ceremony
should take place in ten days, and thus put, as I imagined,
the seal to my fate.
Great God! If for one instant I had thought what might
be the hellish intention of my fiendish adversary, I would
rather have banished myself forever from my native
country and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth
than have consented to this miserable marriage. But, as if
possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me to
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his real intentions; and when I thought that I had prepared
only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim.
As the period fixed for our marriage drew nearer,
whether from cowardice or a prophetic feeling, I felt my
heart sink within me. But I concealed my feelings by an
appearance of hilarity that brought smiles and joy to the
countenance of my father, but hardly deceived the
everwatchful and nicer eye of Elizabeth. She looked
forward to our union with placid contentment, not
unmingled with a little fear, which past misfortunes had
impressed, that what now appeared certain and tangible
happiness might soon dissipate into an airy dream and
leave no trace but deep and everlasting regret.
Preparations were made for the event, congratulatory
visits were received, and all wore a smiling appearance. I
shut up, as well as I could, in my own heart the anxiety
that preyed there and entered with seeming earnestness
into the plans of my father, although they might only
serve as the decorations of my tragedy. Through my
father’s exertions a part of the inheritance of Elizabeth had
been restored to her by the Austrian government. A small
possession on the shores of Como belonged to her. It was
agreed that, immediately after our union, we should
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proceed to Villa Lavenza and spend our first days of
happiness beside the beautiful lake near which it stood.
In the meantime I took every precaution to defend my
person in case the fiend should openly attack me. I carried
pistols and a dagger constantly about me and was ever on
the watch to prevent artifice, and by these means gained a
greater degree of tranquillity. Indeed, as the period
approached, the threat appeared more as a delusion, not to
be regarded as worthy to disturb my peace, while the
happiness I hoped for in my marriage wore a greater
appearance of certainty as the day fixed for its
solemnization drew nearer and I heard it continually
spoken of as an occurrence which no accident could
possibly prevent.
Elizabeth seemed happy; my tranquil demeanour
contributed greatly to calm her mind. But on the day that
was to fulfil my wishes and my destiny, she was
melancholy, and a presentiment of evil pervaded her; and
perhaps also she thought of the dreadful secret which I had
promised to reveal to her on the following day. My father
was in the meantime overjoyed and in the bustle of
preparation only recognized in the melancholy of his niece
the diffidence of a bride.
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After the ceremony was performed a large party
assembled at my father’s, but it was agreed that Elizabeth
and I should commence our journey by water, sleeping
that night at Evian and continuing our voyage on the
following day. The day was fair, the wind favourable; all
smiled on our nuptial embarkation.
Those were the last moments of my life during which I
enjoyed the feeling of happiness. We passed rapidly along;
the sun was hot, but we were sheltered from its rays by a
kind of canopy while we enjoyed the beauty of the scene,
sometimes on one side of the lake, where we saw Mont
Saleve, the pleasant banks of Montalegre, and at a distance,
surmounting all, the beautiful Mont Blanc and the
assemblage of snowy mountains that in vain endeavour to
emulate her; sometimes coasting the opposite banks, we
saw the mighty Jura opposing its dark side to the ambition
that would quit its native country, and an almost
insurmountable barrier to the invader who should wish to
enslave it.
I took the hand of Elizabeth. ‘You are sorrowful, my
love. Ah! If you knew what I have suffered and what I
may yet endure, you would endeavour to let me taste the
quiet and freedom from despair that this one day at least
permits me to enjoy.’
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‘Be happy, my dear Victor,’ replied Elizabeth; ‘there is,
I hope, nothing to distress you; and be assured that if a
lively joy is not painted in my face, my heart is contented.
Something whispers to me not to depend too much on
the prospect that is opened before us, but I will not listen
to such a sinister voice. Observe how fast we move along
and how the clouds, which sometimes obscure and
sometimes rise above the dome of Mont Blanc, render this
scene of beauty still more interesting. Look also at the
innumerable fish that are swimming in the clear waters,
where we can distinguish every pebble that lies at the
bottom. What a divine day! How happy and serene all
nature appears!’
Thus Elizabeth endeavoured to divert her thoughts and
mine from all reflection upon melancholy subjects. But
her temper was fluctuating; joy for a few instants shone in
her eyes, but it continually gave place to distraction and
reverie.
The sun sank lower in the heavens; we passed the river
Drance and observed its path through the chasms of the
higher and the glens of the lower hills. The Alps here
come closer to the lake, and we approached the
amphitheatre of mountains which forms its eastern
boundary. The spire of Evian shone under the woods that
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surrounded it and the range of mountain above mountain
by which it was overhung.
The wind, which had hitherto carried us along with
amazing rapidity, sank at sunset to a light breeze; the soft
air just ruffled the water and caused a pleasant motion
among the trees as we approached the shore, from which
it wafted the most delightful scent of flowers and hay. The
sun sank beneath the horizon as we landed, and as I
touched the shore I felt those cares and fears revive which
soon were to clasp me and cling to me forever.
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Chapter 23
It was eight o’clock when we landed; we walked for a
short time on the shore, enjoying the transitory light, and
then retired to the inn and contemplated the lovely scene
of waters, woods, and mountains, obscured in darkness,
yet still displaying their black outlines.
The wind, which had fallen in the south, now rose
with great violence in the west. The moon had reached
her summit in the heavens and was beginning to descend;
the clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the
vulture and dimmed her rays, while the lake reflected the
scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier by the
restless waves that were beginning to rise. Suddenly a
heavy storm of rain descended.
I had been calm during the day, but so soon as night
obscured the shapes of objects, a thousand fears arose in
my mind. I was anxious and watchful, while my right
hand grasped a pistol which was hidden in my bosom;
every sound terrified me, but I resolved that I would sell
my life dearly and not shrink from the conflict until my
own life or that of my adversary was extinguished.
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Elizabeth observed my agitation for some time in timid
and fearful silence, but there was something in my glance
which communicated terror to her, and trembling, she
asked, ‘What is it that agitates you, my dear Victor? What
is it you fear?’
‘Oh! Peace, peace, my love,’ replied I; ‘this night, and
all will be safe; but this night is dreadful, very dreadful.’
I passed an hour in this state of mind, when suddenly I
reflected how fearful the combat which I momentarily
expected would be to my wife, and I earnestly entreated
her to retire, resolving not to join her until I had obtained
some knowledge as to the situation of my enemy.
She left me, and I continued some time walking up and
down the passages of the house and inspecting every
corner that might afford a retreat to my adversary. But I
discovered no trace of him and was beginning to
conjecture that some fortunate chance had intervened to
prevent the execution of his menaces when suddenly I
heard a shrill and dreadful scream. It came from the room
into which Elizabeth had retired. As I heard it, the whole
truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion
of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the
blood trickling in my veins and tingling in the extremities
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of my limbs. This state lasted but for an instant; the scream
was repeated, and I rushed into the room.
Great God! Why did I not then expire! Why am I here
to relate the destruction of the best hope and the purest
creature on earth? She was there, lifeless and inanimate,
thrown across the bed, her head hanging down and her
pale and distorted features half covered by her hair.
Everywhere I turn I see the same figure— her bloodless
arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its bridal
bier. Could I behold this and live? Alas! Life is obstinate
and clings closest where it is most hated. For a moment
only did I lose recollection; I fell senseless on the ground.
When I recovered I found myself surrounded by the
people of the inn; their countenances expressed a
breathless terror, but the horror of others appeared only as
a mockery, a shadow of the feelings that oppressed me. I
escaped from them to the room where lay the body of
Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so dear, so
worthy. She had been moved from the posture in which I
had first beheld her, and now, as she lay, her head upon
her arm and a handkerchief thrown across her face and
neck, I might have supposed her asleep. I rushed towards
her and embraced her with ardour, but the deadly languor
and coldness of the limbs told me that what I now held in
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my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved
and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp
was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from
her lips.
While I still hung over her in the agony of despair, I
happened to look up. The windows of the room had
before been darkened, and I felt a kind of panic on seeing
the pale yellow light of the moon illuminate the chamber.
The shutters had been thrown back, and with a sensation
of horror not to be described, I saw at the open window a
figure the most hideous and abhorred. A grin was on the
face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with his fiendish
finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife. I rushed
towards the window, and drawing a pistol from my
bosom, fired; but he eluded me, leaped from his station,
and running with the swiftness of lightning, plunged into
the lake.
The report of the pistol brought a crowd into the
room. I pointed to the spot where he had disappeared, and
we followed the track with boats; nets were cast, but in
vain. After passing several hours, we returned hopeless,
most of my companions believing it to have been a form
conjured up by my fancy. After having landed, they
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proceeded to search the country, parties going in different
directions among the woods and vines.
I attempted to accompany them and proceeded a short
distance from the house, but my head whirled round, my
steps were like those of a drunken man, I fell at last in a
state of utter exhaustion; a film covered my eyes, and my
skin was parched with the heat of fever. In this state I was
carried back and placed on a bed, hardly conscious of what
had happened; my eyes wandered round the room as if to
seek something that I had lost.
After an interval I arose, and as if by instinct, crawled
into the room where the corpse of my beloved lay. There
were women weeping around; I hung over it and joined
my sad tears to theirs; all this time no distinct idea
presented itself to my mind, but my thoughts rambled to
various subjects, reflecting confusedly on my misfortunes
and their cause. I was bewildered, in a cloud of wonder
and horror. The death of William, the execution of
Justine, the murder of Clerval, and lastly of my wife; even
at that moment I knew not that my only remaining friends
were safe from the malignity of the fiend; my father even
now might be writhing under his grasp, and Ernest might
be dead at his feet. This idea made me shudder and
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recalled me to action. I started up and resolved to return
to Geneva with all possible speed.
There were no horses to be procured, and I must
return by the lake; but the wind was unfavourable, and the
rain fell in torrents. However, it was hardly morning, and
I might reasonably hope to arrive by night. I hired men to
row and took an oar myself, for I had always experienced
relief from mental torment in bodily exercise. But the
overflowing misery I now felt, and the excess of agitation
that I endured rendered me incapable of any exertion. I
threw down the oar, and leaning my head upon my hands,
gave way to every gloomy idea that arose. If I looked up, I
saw scenes which were familiar to me in my happier time
and which I had contemplated but the day before in the
company of her who was now but a shadow and a
recollection. Tears streamed from my eyes. The rain had
ceased for a moment, and I saw the fish play in the waters
as they had done a few hours before; they had then been
observed by Elizabeth. Nothing is so painful to the human
mind as a great and sudden change. The sun might shine
or the clouds might lower, but nothing could appear to
me as it had done the day before. A fiend had snatched
from me every hope of future happiness; no creature had
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ever been so miserable as I was; so frightful an event is
single in the history of man.
But why should I dwell upon the incidents that
followed this last overwhelming event? Mine has been a
tale of horrors; I have reached their acme, and what I must
now relate can but be tedious to you. Know that, one by
one, my friends were snatched away; I was left desolate.
My own strength is exhausted, and I must tell, in a few
words, what remains of my hideous narration.
I arrived at Geneva. My father and Ernest yet lived, but
the former sunk under the tidings that I bore. I see him
now, excellent and venerable old man! His eyes wandered
in vacancy, for they had lost their charm and their
delight—his Elizabeth, his more than daughter, whom he
doted on with all that affection which a man feels, who in
the decline of life, having few affections, clings more
earnestly to those that remain. Cursed, cursed be the fiend
that brought misery on his grey hairs and doomed him to
waste in wretchedness! He could not live under the
horrors that were accumulated around him; the springs of
existence suddenly gave way; he was unable to rise from
his bed, and in a few days he died in my arms.
What then became of me? I know not; I lost sensation,
and chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed
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upon me. Sometimes, indeed, I dreamt that I wandered in
flowery meadows and pleasant vales with the friends of my
youth, but I awoke and found myself in a dungeon.
Melancholy followed, but by degrees I gained a clear
conception of my miseries and situation and was then
released from my prison. For they had called me mad, and
during many months, as I understood, a solitary cell had
been my habitation.
Liberty, however, had been a useless gift to me, had I
not, as I awakened to reason, at the same time awakened
to revenge. As the memory of past misfortunes pressed
upon me, I began to reflect on their cause—the monster
whom I had created, the miserable daemon whom I had
sent abroad into the world for my destruction. I was
possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him,
and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him
within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his
cursed head.
Nor did my hate long confine itself to useless wishes; I
began to reflect on the best means of securing him; and for
this purpose, about a month after my release, I repaired to
a criminal judge in the town and told him that I had an
accusation to make, that I knew the destroyer of my
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family, and that I required him to exert his whole
authority for the apprehension of the murderer.
The magistrate listened to me with attention and
kindness. ‘Be assured, sir,’ said he, ‘no pains or exertions
on my part shall be spared to discover the villain.’
‘I thank you,’ replied I; ‘listen, therefore, to the
deposition that I have to make. It is indeed a tale so
strange that I should fear you would not credit it were
there not something in truth which, however wonderful,
forces conviction. The story is too connected to be
mistaken for a dream, and I have no motive for falsehood.’
My manner as I thus addressed him was impressive but
calm; I had formed in my own heart a resolution to pursue
my destroyer to death, and this purpose quieted my agony
and for an interval reconciled me to life. I now related my
history briefly but with firmness and precision, marking
the dates with accuracy and never deviating into invective
or exclamation.
The magistrate appeared at first perfectly incredulous,
but as I continued he became more attentive and
interested; I saw him sometimes shudder with horror; at
others a lively surprise, unmingled with disbelief, was
painted on his countenance.
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When I had concluded my narration I said, ‘This is the
being whom I accuse and for whose seizure and
punishment I call upon you to exert your whole power. It
is your duty as a magistrate, and I believe and hope that
your feelings as a man will not revolt from the execution
of those functions on this occasion.’
This address caused a considerable change in the
physiognomy of my own auditor. He had heard my story
with that half kind of belief that is given to a tale of spirits
and supernatural events; but when he was called upon to
act officially in consequence, the whole tide of his
incredulity returned. He, however, answered mildly, ‘I
would willingly afford you every aid in your pursuit, but
the creature of whom you speak appears to have powers
which would put all my exertions to defiance. Who can
follow an animal which can traverse the sea of ice and
inhabit caves and dens where no man would venture to
intrude? Besides, some months have elapsed since the
commission of his crimes, and no one can conjecture to
what place he has wandered or what region he may now
inhabit.’
‘I do not doubt that he hovers near the spot which I
inhabit, and if he has indeed taken refuge in the Alps, he
may be hunted like the chamois and destroyed as a beast of
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prey. But I perceive your thoughts; you do not credit my
narrative and do not intend to pursue my enemy with the
punishment which is his desert.’
As I spoke, rage sparkled in my eyes; the magistrate was
intimidated. ‘You are mistaken,’ said he. ‘I will exert
myself, and if it is in my power to seize the monster, be
assured that he shall suffer punishment proportionate to his
crimes. But I fear, from what you have yourself described
to be his properties, that this will prove impracticable; and
thus, while every proper measure is pursued, you should
make up your mind to disappointment.’
‘That cannot be; but all that I can say will be of little
avail. My revenge is of no moment to you; yet, while I
allow it to be a vice, I confess that it is the devouring and
only passion of my soul. My rage is unspeakable when I
reflect that the murderer, whom I have turned loose upon
society, still exists. You refuse my just demand; I have but
one resource, and I devote myself, either in my life or
death, to his destruction.’
I trembled with excess of agitation as I said this; there
was a frenzy in my manner, and something, I doubt not,
of that haughty fierceness which the martyrs of old are said
to have possessed. But to a Genevan magistrate, whose
mind was occupied by far other ideas than those of
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devotion and heroism, this elevation of mind had much
the appearance of madness. He endeavoured to soothe me
as a nurse does a child and reverted to my tale as the
effects of delirium.
‘Man,’ I cried, ‘how ignorant art thou in thy pride of
wisdom! Cease; you know not what it is you say.’
I broke from the house angry and disturbed and retired
to meditate on some other mode of action.
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Chapter 24
My present situation was one in which all voluntary
thought was swallowed up and lost. I was hurried away by
fury; revenge alone endowed me with strength and
composure; it moulded my feelings and allowed me to be
calculating and calm at periods when otherwise delirium
or death would have been my portion.
My first resolution was to quit Geneva forever; my
country, which, when I was happy and beloved, was dear
to me, now, in my adversity, became hateful. I provided
myself with a sum of money, together with a few jewels
which had belonged to my mother, and departed.
And now my wanderings began which are to cease but
with life. I have traversed a vast portion of the earth and
have endured all the hardships which travellers in deserts
and barbarous countries are wont to meet. How I have
lived I hardly know; many times have I stretched my
failing limbs upon the sandy plain and prayed for death.
But revenge kept me alive; I dared not die and leave my
adversary in being.
When I quitted Geneva my first labour was to gain
some clue by which I might trace the steps of my fiendish
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enemy. But my plan was unsettled, and I wandered many
hours round the confines of the town, uncertain what path
I should pursue. As night approached I found myself at the
entrance of the cemetery where William, Elizabeth, and
my father reposed. I entered it and approached the tomb
which marked their graves. Everything was silent except
the leaves of the trees, which were gently agitated by the
wind; the night was nearly dark, and the scene would have
been solemn and affecting even to an uninterested
observer. The spirits of the departed seemed to flit around
and to cast a shadow, which was felt but not seen, around
the head of the mourner.
The deep grief which this scene had at first excited
quickly gave way to rage and despair. They were dead,
and I lived; their murderer also lived, and to destroy him I
must drag out my weary existence. I knelt on the grass and
kissed the earth and with quivering lips exclaimed, ‘By the
sacred earth on which I kneel, by the shades that wander
near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I feel, I swear;
and by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over
thee, to pursue the daemon who caused this misery, until
he or I shall perish in mortal conflict. For this purpose I
will preserve my life; to execute this dear revenge will I
again behold the sun and tread the green herbage of earth,
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which otherwise should vanish from my eyes forever. And
I call on you, spirits of the dead, and on you, wandering
ministers of vengeance, to aid and conduct me in my
work. Let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of
agony; let him feel the despair that now torments me.’
I had begun my adjuration with solemnity and an awe
which almost assured me that the shades of my murdered
friends heard and approved my devotion, but the furies
possessed me as I concluded, and rage choked my
utterance.
I was answered through the stillness of night by a loud
and fiendish laugh. It rang on my ears long and heavily;
the mountains re-echoed it, and I felt as if all hell
surrounded me with mockery and laughter. Surely in that
moment I should have been possessed by frenzy and have
destroyed my miserable existence but that my vow was
heard and that I was reserved for vengeance. The laughter
died away, when a well-known and abhorred voice,
apparently close to my ear, addressed me in an audible
whisper, ‘I am satisfied, miserable wretch! You have
determined to live, and I am satisfied.’
I darted towards the spot from which the sound
proceeded, but the devil eluded my grasp. Suddenly the
broad disk of the moon arose and shone full upon his
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ghastly and distorted shape as he fled with more than
mortal speed.
I pursued him, and for many months this has been my
task. Guided by a slight clue, I followed the windings of
the Rhone, but vainly. The blue Mediterranean appeared,
and by a strange chance, I saw the fiend enter by night and
hide himself in a vessel bound for the Black Sea. I took
my passage in the same ship, but he escaped, I know not
how.
Amidst the wilds of Tartary and Russia, although he
still evaded me, I have ever followed in his track.
Sometimes the peasants, scared by this horrid apparition,
informed me of his path; sometimes he himself, who
feared that if I lost all trace of him I should despair and die,
left some mark to guide me. The snows descended on my
head, and I saw the print of his huge step on the white
plain. To you first entering on life, to whom care is new
and agony unknown, how can you understand what I
have felt and still feel? Cold, want, and fatigue were the
least pains which I was destined to endure; I was cursed by
some devil and carried about with me my eternal hell; yet
still a spirit of good followed and directed my steps and
when I most murmured would suddenly extricate me
from seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Sometimes,
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when nature, overcome by hunger, sank under the
exhaustion, a repast was prepared for me in the desert that
restored and inspirited me. The fare was, indeed, coarse,
such as the peasants of the country ate, but I will not
doubt that it was set there by the spirits that I had invoked
to aid me. Often, when all was dry, the heavens cloudless,
and I was parched by thirst, a slight cloud would bedim
the sky, shed the few drops that revived me, and vanish.
I followed, when I could, the courses of the rivers; but
the daemon generally avoided these, as it was here that the
population of the country chiefly collected. In other places
human beings were seldom seen, and I generally subsisted
on the wild animals that crossed my path. I had money
with me and gained the friendship of the villagers by
distributing it; or I brought with me some food that I had
killed, which, after taking a small part, I always presented
to those who had provided me with fire and utensils for
cooking.
My life, as it passed thus, was indeed hateful to me, and
it was during sleep alone that I could taste joy. O blessed
sleep! Often, when most miserable, I sank to repose, and
my dreams lulled me even to rapture. The spirits that
guarded me had provided these moments, or rather hours,
of happiness that I might retain strength to fulfil my
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pilgrimage. Deprived of this respite, I should have sunk
under my hardships. During the day I was sustained and
inspirited by the hope of night, for in sleep I saw my
friends, my wife, and my beloved country; again I saw the
benevolent countenance of my father, heard the silver
tones of my Elizabeth’s voice, and beheld Clerval enjoying
health and youth. Often, when wearied by a toilsome
march, I persuaded myself that I was dreaming until night
should come and that I should then enjoy reality in the
arms of my dearest friends. What agonizing fondness did I
feel for them! How did I cling to their dear forms, as
sometimes they haunted even my waking hours, and
persuade myself that they still lived! At such moments
vengeance, that burned within me, died in my heart, and I
pursued my path towards the destruction of the daemon
more as a task enjoined by heaven, as the mechanical
impulse of some power of which I was unconscious, than
as the ardent desire of my soul.
What his feelings were whom I pursued I cannot
know. Sometimes, indeed, he left marks in writing on the
barks of the trees or cut in stone that guided me and
instigated my fury. ‘My reign is not yet over’— these
words were legible in one of these inscriptions— ‘you
live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the
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everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the
misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive. You
will find near this place, if you follow not too tardily, a
dead hare; eat and be refreshed. Come on, my enemy; we
have yet to wrestle for our lives, but many hard and
miserable hours must you endure until that period shall
arrive.’
Scoffing devil! Again do I vow vengeance; again do I
devote thee, miserable fiend, to torture and death. Never
will I give up my search until he or I perish; and then with
what ecstasy shall I join my Elizabeth and my departed
friends, who even now prepare for me the reward of my
tedious toil and horrible pilgrimage!
As I still pursued my journey to the northward, the
snows thickened and the cold increased in a degree almost
too severe to support. The peasants were shut up in their
hovels, and only a few of the most hardy ventured forth to
seize the animals whom starvation had forced from their
hiding-places to seek for prey. The rivers were covered
with ice, and no fish could be procured; and thus I was cut
off from my chief article of maintenance.
The triumph of my enemy increased with the difficulty
of my labours. One inscription that he left was in these
words: ‘Prepare! Your toils only begin; wrap yourself in
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furs and provide food, for we shall soon enter upon a
journey where your sufferings will satisfy my everlasting
hatred.’
My courage and perseverance were invigorated by
these scoffing words; I resolved not to fail in my purpose,
and calling on heaven to support me, I continued with
unabated fervour to traverse immense deserts, until the
ocean appeared at a distance and formed the utmost
boundary of the horizon. Oh! How unlike it was to the
blue seasons of the south! Covered with ice, it was only to
be distinguished from land by its superior wildness and
ruggedness. The Greeks wept for joy when they beheld
the Mediterranean from the hills of Asia, and hailed with
rapture the boundary of their toils. I did not weep, but I
knelt down and with a full heart thanked my guiding spirit
for conducting me in safety to the place where I hoped,
notwithstanding my adversary’s gibe, to meet and grapple
with him.
Some weeks before this period I had procured a sledge
and dogs and thus traversed the snows with inconceivable
speed. I know not whether the fiend possessed the same
advantages, but I found that, as before I had daily lost
ground in the pursuit, I now gained on him, so much so
that when I first saw the ocean he was but one day’s
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journey in advance, and I hoped to intercept him before
he should reach the beach. With new courage, therefore, I
pressed on, and in two days arrived at a wretched hamlet
on the seashore. I inquired of the inhabitants concerning
the fiend and gained accurate information. A gigantic
monster, they said, had arrived the night before, armed
with a gun and many pistols, putting to flight the
inhabitants of a solitary cottage through fear of his terrific
appearance. He had carried off their store of winter food,
and placing it in a sledge, to draw which he had seized on
a numerous drove of trained dogs, he had harnessed them,
and the same night, to the joy of the horror-struck
villagers, had pursued his journey across the sea in a
direction that led to no land; and they conjectured that he
must speedily be destroyed by the breaking of the ice or
frozen by the eternal frosts.
On hearing this information I suffered a temporary
access of despair. He had escaped me, and I must
commence a destructive and almost endless journey across
the mountainous ices of the ocean, amidst cold that few of
the inhabitants could long endure and which I, the native
of a genial and sunny climate, could not hope to survive.
Yet at the idea that the fiend should live and be
triumphant, my rage and vengeance returned, and like a
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mighty tide, overwhelmed every other feeling. After a
slight repose, during which the spirits of the dead hovered
round and instigated me to toil and revenge, I prepared for
my journey.
I exchanged my land-sledge for one fashioned for the
inequalities of the frozen ocean, and purchasing a plentiful
stock of provisions, I departed from land.
I cannot guess how many days have passed since then,
but I have endured misery which nothing but the eternal
sentiment of a just retribution burning within my heart
could have enabled me to support. Immense and rugged
mountains of ice often barred up my passage, and I often
heard the thunder of the ground sea, which threatened my
destruction. But again the frost came and made the paths
of the sea secure.
By the quantity of provision which I had consumed, I
should guess that I had passed three weeks in this journey;
and the continual protraction of hope, returning back
upon the heart, often wrung bitter drops of despondency
and grief from my eyes. Despair had indeed almost secured
her prey, and I should soon have sunk beneath this misery.
Once, after the poor animals that conveyed me had with
incredible toil gained the summit of a sloping ice
mountain, and one, sinking under his fatigue, died, I
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viewed the expanse before me with anguish, when
suddenly my eye caught a dark speck upon the dusky
plain. I strained my sight to discover what it could be and
uttered a wild cry of ecstasy when I distinguished a sledge
and the distorted proportions of a well-known form
within. Oh! With what a burning gush did hope revisit
my heart! Warm tears filled my eyes, which I hastily wiped
away, that they might not intercept the view I had of the
daemon; but still my sight was dimmed by the burning
drops, until, giving way to the emotions that oppressed
me, I wept aloud.
But this was not the time for delay; I disencumbered
the dogs of their dead companion, gave them a plentiful
portion of food, and after an hour’s rest, which was
absolutely necessary, and yet which was bitterly irksome to
me, I continued my route. The sledge was still visible, nor
did I again lose sight of it except at the moments when for
a short time some ice-rock concealed it with its
intervening crags. I indeed perceptibly gained on it, and
when, after nearly two days’ journey, I beheld my enemy
at no more than a mile distant, my heart bounded within
me.
But now, when I appeared almost within grasp of my
foe, my hopes were suddenly extinguished, and I lost all
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trace of him more utterly than I had ever done before. A
ground sea was heard; the thunder of its progress, as the
waters rolled and swelled beneath me, became every
moment more ominous and terrific. I pressed on, but in
vain. The wind arose; the sea roared; and, as with the
mighty shock of an earthquake, it split and cracked with a
tremendous and overwhelming sound. The work was
soon finished; in a few minutes a tumultuous sea rolled
between me and my enemy, and I was left drifting on a
scattered piece of ice that was continually lessening and
thus preparing for me a hideous death.
In this manner many appalling hours passed; several of
my dogs died, and I myself was about to sink under the
accumulation of distress when I saw your vessel riding at
anchor and holding forth to me hopes of succour and life.
I had no conception that vessels ever came so far north
and was astounded at the sight. I quickly destroyed part of
my sledge to construct oars, and by these means was
enabled, with infinite fatigue, to move my ice raft in the
direction of your ship. I had determined, if you were
going southwards, still to trust myself to the mercy of the
seas rather than abandon my purpose. I hoped to induce
you to grant me a boat with which I could pursue my
enemy. But your direction was northwards. You took me
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on board when my vigour was exhausted, and I should
soon have sunk under my multiplied hardships into a
death which I still dread, for my task is unfulfilled.
Oh! When will my guiding spirit, in conducting me to
the daemon, allow me the rest I so much desire; or must I
die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me, Walton, that he
shall not escape, that you will seek him and satisfy my
vengeance in his death. And do I dare to ask of you to
undertake my pilgrimage, to endure the hardships that I
have undergone? No; I am not so selfish. Yet, when I am
dead, if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance
should conduct him to you, swear that he shall not live—
swear that he shall not triumph over my accumulated
woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes. He
is eloquent and persuasive, and once his words had even
power over my heart; but trust him not. His soul is as
hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiendlike malice.
Hear him not; call on the names of William, Justine,
Clerval, Elizabeth, my father, and of the wretched Victor,
and thrust your sword into his heart. I will hover near and
direct the steel aright.
Walton, in continuation.
August 26th, 17—
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You have read this strange and terrific story, Margaret;
and do you not feel your blood congeal with horror, like
that which even now curdles mine? Sometimes, seized
with sudden agony, he could not continue his tale; at
others, his voice broken, yet piercing, uttered with
difficulty the words so replete with anguish. His fine and
lovely eyes were now lighted up with indignation, now
subdued to downcast sorrow and quenched in infinite
wretchedness. Sometimes he commanded his countenance
and tones and related the most horrible incidents with a
tranquil voice, suppressing every mark of agitation; then,
like a volcano bursting forth, his face would suddenly
change to an expression of the wildest rage as he shrieked
out imprecations on his persecutor.
His tale is connected and told with an appearance of
the simplest truth, yet I own to you that the letters of
Felix and Safie, which he showed me, and the apparition
of the monster seen from our ship, brought to me a
greater conviction of the truth of his narrative than his
asseverations, however earnest and connected. Such a
monster has, then, really existence! I cannot doubt it, yet I
am lost in surprise and admiration. Sometimes I
endeavoured to gain from Frankenstein the particulars of
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his creature’s formation, but on this point he was
impenetrable.
‘Are you mad, my friend?’ said he. ‘Or whither does
your senseless curiosity lead you? Would you also create
for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy? Peace,
peace! Learn my miseries and do not seek to increase your
own.’
Frankenstein discovered that I made notes concerning
his history; he asked to see them and then himself
corrected and augmented them in many places, but
principally in giving the life and spirit to the conversations
he held with his enemy. ‘Since you have preserved my
narration,’ said he, ‘I would not that a mutilated one
should go down to posterity.’
Thus has a week passed away, while I have listened to
the strangest tale that ever imagination formed. My
thoughts and every feeling of my soul have been drunk up
by the interest for my guest which this tale and his own
elevated and gentle manners have created. I wish to soothe
him, yet can I counsel one so infinitely miserable, so
destitute of every hope of consolation, to live? Oh, no!
The only joy that he can now know will be when he
composes his shattered spirit to peace and death. Yet he
enjoys one comfort, the offspring of solitude and delirium;
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he believes that when in dreams he holds converse with
his friends and derives from that communion consolation
for his miseries or excitements to his vengeance, that they
are not the creations of his fancy, but the beings
themselves who visit him from the regions of a remote
world. This faith gives a solemnity to his reveries that
render them to me almost as imposing and interesting as
truth.
Our conversations are not always confined to his own
history and misfortunes. On every point of general
literature he displays unbounded knowledge and a quick
and piercing apprehension. His eloquence is forcible and
touching; nor can I hear him, when he relates a pathetic
incident or endeavours to move the passions of pity or
love, without tears. What a glorious creature must he have
been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus noble
and godlike in ruin! He seems to feel his own worth and
the greatness of his fall.
‘When younger,’ said he, ‘I believed myself destined
for some great enterprise. My feelings are profound, but I
possessed a coolness of judgment that fitted me for
illustrious achievements. This sentiment of the worth of
my nature supported me when others would have been
oppressed, for I deemed it criminal to throw away in
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useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow
creatures. When I reflected on the work I had completed,
no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational
animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common
projectors. But this thought, which supported me in the
commencement of my career, now serves only to plunge
me lower in the dust. All my speculations and hopes are as
nothing, and like the archangel who aspired to
omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell. My
imagination was vivid, yet my powers of analysis and
application were intense; by the union of these qualities I
conceived the idea and executed the creation of a man.
Even now I cannot recollect without passion my reveries
while the work was incomplete. I trod heaven in my
thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with
the idea of their effects. From my infancy I was imbued
with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk!
Oh! My friend, if you had known me as I once was, you
would not recognize me in this state of degradation.
Despondency rarely visited my heart; a high destiny
seemed to bear me on, until I fell, never, never again to
rise.’
Must I then lose this admirable being? I have longed for
a friend; I have sought one who would sympathize with
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and love me. Behold, on these desert seas I have found
such a one, but I fear I have gained him only to know his
value and lose him. I would reconcile him to life, but he
repulses the idea.
‘I thank you, Walton,’ he said, ‘for your kind
intentions towards so miserable a wretch; but when you
speak of new ties and fresh affections, think you that any
can replace those who are gone? Can any man be to me as
Clerval was, or any woman another Elizabeth? Even
where the affections are not strongly moved by any
superior excellence, the companions of our childhood
always possess a certain power over our minds which
hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our
infantine dispositions, which, however they may be
afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can
judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to
the integrity of our motives. A sister or a brother can
never, unless indeed such symptoms have been shown
early, suspect the other of fraud or false dealing, when
another friend, however strongly he may be attached,
may, in spite of himself, be contemplated with suspicion.
But I enjoyed friends, dear not only through habit and
association, but from their own merits; and wherever I
am, the soothing voice of my Elizabeth and the
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conversation of Clerval will be ever whispered in my ear.
They are dead, and but one feeling in such a solitude can
persuade me to preserve my life. If I were engaged in any
high undertaking or design, fraught with extensive utility
to my fellow creatures, then could I live to fulfil it. But
such is not my destiny; I must pursue and destroy the
being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will
be fulfilled and I may die.’
My beloved Sister, September 2nd
I write to you, encompassed by peril and ignorant
whether I am ever doomed to see again dear England and
the dearer friends that inhabit it. I am surrounded by
mountains of ice which admit of no escape and threaten
every moment to crush my vessel. The brave fellows
whom I have persuaded to be my companions look
towards me for aid, but I have none to bestow. There is
something terribly appalling in our situation, yet my
courage and hopes do not desert me. Yet it is terrible to
reflect that the lives of all these men are endangered
through me. If we are lost, my mad schemes are the cause.
And what, Margaret, will be the state of your mind?
You will not hear of my destruction, and you will
anxiously await my return. Years will pass, and you will
have visitings of despair and yet be tortured by hope. Oh!
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My beloved sister, the sickening failing of your heart-felt
expectations is, in prospect, more terrible to me than my
own death. But you have a husband and lovely children;
you may be happy. Heaven bless you and make you so!
My unfortunate guest regards me with the tenderest
compassion. He endeavours to fill me with hope and talks
as if life were a possession which he valued. He reminds
me how often the same accidents have happened to other
navigators who have attempted this sea, and in spite of
myself, he fills me with cheerful auguries. Even the sailors
feel the power of his eloquence; when he speaks, they no
longer despair; he rouses their energies, and while they
hear his voice they believe these vast mountains of ice are
mole-hills which will vanish before the resolutions of man.
These feelings are transitory; each day of expectation
delayed fills them with fear, and I almost dread a mutiny
caused by this despair.
September 5th
A scene has just passed of such uncommon interest that,
although it is highly probable that these papers may never
reach you, yet I cannot forbear recording it.
We are still surrounded by mountains of ice, still in
imminent danger of being crushed in their conflict. The
cold is excessive, and many of my unfortunate comrades
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have already found a grave amidst this scene of desolation.
Frankenstein has daily declined in health; a feverish fire
still glimmers in his eyes, but he is exhausted, and when
suddenly roused to any exertion, he speedily sinks again
into apparent lifelessness.
I mentioned in my last letter the fears I entertained of a
mutiny. This morning, as I sat watching the wan
countenance of my friend— his eyes half closed and his
limbs hanging listlessly— I was roused by half a dozen of
the sailors, who demanded admission into the cabin. They
entered, and their leader addressed me. He told me that he
and his companions had been chosen by the other sailors
to come in deputation to me to make me a requisition
which, in justice, I could not refuse. We were immured in
ice and should probably never escape, but they feared that
if, as was possible, the ice should dissipate and a free
passage be opened, I should be rash enough to continue
my voyage and lead them into fresh dangers, after they
might happily have surmounted this. They insisted,
therefore, that I should engage with a solemn promise that
if the vessel should be freed I would instantly direct my
course southwards.
This speech troubled me. I had not despaired, nor had I
yet conceived the idea of returning if set free. Yet could I,
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in justice, or even in possibility, refuse this demand? I
hesitated before I answered, when Frankenstein, who had
at first been silent, and indeed appeared hardly to have
force enough to attend, now roused himself; his eyes
sparkled, and his cheeks flushed with momentary vigour.
Turning towards the men, he said, ‘What do you mean?
What do you demand of your captain? Are you, then, so
easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a
glorious expedition? And wherefore was it glorious? Not
because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea,
but because it was full of dangers and terror, because at
every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth
and your courage exhibited, because danger and death
surrounded it, and these you were to brave and overcome.
For this was it a glorious, for this was it an honourable
undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the
benefactors of your species, your names adored as
belonging to brave men who encountered death for
honour and the benefit of mankind. And now, behold,
with the first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the
first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink
away and are content to be handed down as men who had
not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor
souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm
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firesides. Why, that requires not this preparation; ye need
not have come thus far and dragged your captain to the
shame of a defeat merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh!
Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes
and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as
your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand
you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your
families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your
brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered
and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the
foe.’
He spoke this with a voice so modulated to the
different feelings expressed in his speech, with an eye so
full of lofty design and heroism, that can you wonder that
these men were moved? They looked at one another and
were unable to reply. I spoke; I told them to retire and
consider of what had been said, that I would not lead
them farther north if they strenuously desired the contrary,
but that I hoped that, with reflection, their courage would
return.
They retired and I turned towards my friend, but he
was sunk in languor and almost deprived of life.
How all this will terminate, I know not, but I had
rather die than return shamefully, my purpose unfulfilled.
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Yet I fear such will be my fate; the men, unsupported by
ideas of glory and honour, can never willingly continue to
endure their present hardships.
September 7th
The die is cast; I have consented to return if we are not
destroyed. Thus are my hopes blasted by cowardice and
indecision; I come back ignorant and disappointed. It
requires more philosophy than I possess to bear this
injustice with patience.
September 12th
It is past; I am returning to England. I have lost my
hopes of utility and glory; I have lost my friend. But I will
endeavour to detail these bitter circumstances to you, my
dear sister; and while I am wafted towards England and
towards you, I will not despond.
September 9th, the ice began to move, and roarings
like thunder were heard at a distance as the islands split
and cracked in every direction. We were in the most
imminent peril, but as we could only remain passive, my
chief attention was occupied by my unfortunate guest
whose illness increased in such a degree that he was
entirely confined to his bed. The ice cracked behind us
and was driven with force towards the north; a breeze
sprang from the west, and on the 11th the passage towards
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the south became perfectly free. When the sailors saw this
and that their return to their native country was apparently
assured, a shout of tumultuous joy broke from them, loud
and long-continued. Frankenstein, who was dozing,
awoke and asked the cause of the tumult. ‘They shout,’ I
said, ‘because they will soon return to England.’
‘Do you, then, really return?’
‘Alas! Yes; I cannot withstand their demands. I cannot
lead them unwillingly to danger, and I must return.’
‘Do so, if you will; but I will not. You may give up
your purpose, but mine is assigned to me by heaven, and I
dare not. I am weak, but surely the spirits who assist my
vengeance will endow me with sufficient strength.’ Saying
this, he endeavoured to spring from the bed, but the
exertion was too great for him; he fell back and fainted.
It was long before he was restored, and I often thought
that life was entirely extinct. At length he opened his eyes;
he breathed with difficulty and was unable to speak. The
surgeon gave him a composing draught and ordered us to
leave him undisturbed. In the meantime he told me that
my friend had certainly not many hours to live.
His sentence was pronounced, and I could only grieve
and be patient. I sat by his bed, watching him; his eyes
were closed, and I thought he slept; but presently he called
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to me in a feeble voice, and bidding me come near, said,
‘Alas! The strength I relied on is gone; I feel that I shall
soon die, and he, my enemy and persecutor, may still be
in being. Think not, Walton, that in the last moments of
my existence I feel that burning hatred and ardent desire
of revenge I once expressed; but I feel myself justified in
desiring the death of my adversary. During these last days I
have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do
I find it blamable. In a fit of enthusiastic madness I created
a rational creature and was bound towards him to assure,
as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being.
This was my duty, but there was another still paramount
to that. My duties towards the beings of my own species
had greater claims to my attention because they included a
greater proportion of happiness or misery. Urged by this
view, I refused, and I did right in refusing, to create a
companion for the first creature. He showed unparalleled
malignity and selfishness in evil; he destroyed my friends;
he devoted to destruction beings who possessed exquisite
sensations, happiness, and wisdom; nor do I know where
this thirst for vengeance may end. Miserable himself that
he may render no other wretched, he ought to die. The
task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed. When
actuated by selfish and vicious motives, I asked you to
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undertake my unfinished work, and I renew this request
now, when I am only induced by reason and virtue.
‘Yet I cannot ask you to renounce your country and
friends to fulfil this task; and now that you are returning to
England, you will have little chance of meeting with him.
But the consideration of these points, and the well
balancing of what you may esteem your duties, I leave to
you; my judgment and ideas are already disturbed by the
near approach of death. I dare not ask you to do what I
think right, for I may still be misled by passion.
‘That he should live to be an instrument of mischief
disturbs me; in other respects, this hour, when I
momentarily expect my release, is the only happy one
which I have enjoyed for several years. The forms of the
beloved dead flit before me, and I hasten to their arms.
Farewell, Walton! Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid
ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of
distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. Yet why
do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet
another may succeed.’
His voice became fainter as he spoke, and at length,
exhausted by his effort, he sank into silence. About half an
hour afterwards he attempted again to speak but was
unable; he pressed my hand feebly, and his eyes closed
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forever, while the irradiation of a gentle smile passed away
from his lips.
Margaret, what comment can I make on the untimely
extinction of this glorious spirit? What can I say that will
enable you to understand the depth of my sorrow? All that
I should express would be inadequate and feeble. My tears
flow; my mind is overshadowed by a cloud of
disappointment. But I journey towards England, and I
may there find consolation.
I am interrupted. What do these sounds portend? It is
midnight; the breeze blows fairly, and the watch on deck
scarcely stir. Again there is a sound as of a human voice,
but hoarser; it comes from the cabin where the remains of
Frankenstein still lie. I must arise and examine. Good
night, my sister.
Great God! what a scene has just taken place! I am yet
dizzy with the remembrance of it. I hardly know whether
I shall have the power to detail it; yet the tale which I
have recorded would be incomplete without this final and
wonderful catastrophe.
I entered the cabin where lay the remains of my ill-
fated and admirable friend. Over him hung a form which I
cannot find words to describe—gigantic in stature, yet
uncouth and distorted in its proportions. As he hung over
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the coffin, his face was concealed by long locks of ragged
hair; but one vast hand was extended, in colour and
apparent texture like that of a mummy. When he heard
the sound of my approach, he ceased to utter exclamations
of grief and horror and sprung towards the window.
Never did I behold a vision so horrible as his face, of such
loathsome yet appalling hideousness. I shut my eyes
involuntarily and endeavoured to recollect what were my
duties with regard to this destroyer. I called on him to
stay.
He paused, looking on me with wonder, and again
turning towards the lifeless form of his creator, he seemed
to forget my presence, and every feature and gesture
seemed instigated by the wildest rage of some
uncontrollable passion.
‘That is also my victim!’ he exclaimed. ‘In his murder
my crimes are consummated; the miserable series of my
being is wound to its close! Oh, Frankenstein! Generous
and self-devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask
thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by
destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! He is cold, he cannot
answer me.’
His voice seemed suffocated, and my first impulses,
which had suggested to me the duty of obeying the dying
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request of my friend in destroying his enemy, were now
suspended by a mixture of curiosity and compassion. I
approached this tremendous being; I dared not again raise
my eyes to his face, there was something so scaring and
unearthly in his ugliness. I attempted to speak, but the
words died away on my lips. The monster continued to
utter wild and incoherent self-reproaches. At length I
gathered resolution to address him in a pause of the
tempest of his passion. ‘Your repentance,’ I said, ‘is now
superfluous. If you had listened to the voice of conscience
and heeded the stings of remorse before you had urged
your diabolical vengeance to this extremity, Frankenstein
would yet have lived.’
‘And do you dream?’ said the daemon. ‘Do you think
that I was then dead to agony and remorse? He,’ he
continued, pointing to the corpse, ‘he suffered not in the
consummation of the deed. Oh! Not the ten-thousandth
portion of the anguish that was mine during the lingering
detail of its execution. A frightful selfishness hurried me
on, while my heart was poisoned with remorse. Think
you that the groans of Clerval were music to my ears? My
heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and
sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and
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hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change
without torture such as you cannot even imagine.
‘After the murder of Clerval I returned to Switzerland,
heart-broken and overcome. I pitied Frankenstein; my
pity amounted to horror; I abhorred myself. But when I
discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and
of its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for happiness,
that while he accumulated wretchedness and despair upon
me he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions
from the indulgence of which I was forever barred, then
impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an
insatiable thirst for vengeance. I recollected my threat and
resolved that it should be accomplished. I knew that I was
preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave,
not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could
not disobey. Yet when she died! Nay, then I was not
miserable. I had cast off all feeling, subdued all anguish, to
riot in the excess of my despair. Evil thenceforth became
my good. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my
nature to an element which I had willingly chosen. The
completion of my demoniacal design became an insatiable
passion. And now it is ended; there is my last victim!’
I was at first touched by the expressions of his misery;
yet, when I called to mind what Frankenstein had said of
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his powers of eloquence and persuasion, and when I again
cast my eyes on the lifeless form of my friend, indignation
was rekindled within me. ‘Wretch!’ I said. ‘It is well that
you come here to whine over the desolation that you have
made. You throw a torch into a pile of buildings, and
when they are consumed, you sit among the ruins and
lament the fall. Hypocritical fiend! If he whom you mourn
still lived, still would he be the object, again would he
become the prey, of your accursed vengeance. It is not
pity that you feel; you lament only because the victim of
your malignity is withdrawn from your power.’
‘Oh, it is not thus—not thus,’ interrupted the being.
‘Yet such must be the impression conveyed to you by
what appears to be the purport of my actions. Yet I seek
not a fellow feeling in my misery. No sympathy may I
ever find. When I first sought it, it was the love of virtue,
the feelings of happiness and affection with which my
whole being overflowed, that I wished to be participated.
But now that virtue has become to me a shadow, and that
happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing
despair, in what should I seek for sympathy? I am content
to suffer alone while my sufferings shall endure; when I
die, I am well satisfied that abhorrence and opprobrium
should load my memory. Once my fancy was soothed
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with dreams of virtue, of fame, and of enjoyment. Once I
falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my
outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities
which I was capable of unfolding. I was nourished with
high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now crime has
degraded me beneath the meanest animal. No guilt, no
mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found
comparable to mine. When I run over the frightful
catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same
creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime
and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of
goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a
malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man
had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.
‘You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have
a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the
detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up
the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting
in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I
did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent
and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was
still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be
thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned
against me? Why do you not hate Felix, who drove his
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friend from his door with contumely? Why do you not
execrate the rustic who sought to destroy the saviour of
his child? Nay, these are virtuous and immaculate beings!
I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be
spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. Even now my
blood boils at the recollection of this injustice.
‘But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the
lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as
they slept and grasped to death his throat who never
injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my
creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love
and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued
him even to that irremediable ruin. There he lies, white
and cold in death. You hate me, but your abhorrence
cannot equal that with which I regard myself. I look on
the hands which executed the deed; I think on the heart
in which the imagination of it was conceived and long for
the moment when these hands will meet my eyes, when
that imagination will haunt my thoughts no more.
‘Fear not that I shall be the instrument of future
mischief. My work is nearly complete. Neither yours nor
any man’s death is needed to consummate the series of my
being and accomplish that which must be done, but it
requires my own. Do not think that I shall be slow to
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perform this sacrifice. I shall quit your vessel on the ice raft
which brought me thither and shall seek the most
northern extremity of the globe; I shall collect my funeral
pile and consume to ashes this miserable frame, that its
remains may afford no light to any curious and
unhallowed wretch who would create such another as I
have been. I shall die. I shall no longer feel the agonies
which now consume me or be the prey of feelings
unsatisfied, yet unquenched. He is dead who called me
into being; and when I shall be no more, the very
remembrance of us both will speedily vanish. I shall no
longer see the sun or stars or feel the winds play on my
cheeks. Light, feeling, and sense will pass away; and in this
condition must I find my happiness. Some years ago,
when the images which this world affords first opened
upon me, when I felt the cheering warmth of summer and
heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the
birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die;
now it is my only consolation. Polluted by crimes and torn
by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in
death?
‘Farewell! I leave you, and in you the last of
humankind whom these eyes will ever behold. Farewell,
Frankenstein! If thou wert yet alive and yet cherished a
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desire of revenge against me, it would be better satiated in
my life than in my destruction. But it was not so; thou
didst seek my extinction, that I might not cause greater
wretchedness; and if yet, in some mode unknown to me,
thou hadst not ceased to think and feel, thou wouldst not
desire against me a vengeance greater than that which I
feel. Blasted as thou wert, my agony was still superior to
thine, for the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to
rankle in my wounds until death shall close them forever.
‘But soon,’ he cried with sad and solemn enthusiasm, ‘I
shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon
these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my
funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the
torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade
away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds.
My spirit will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will not
surely think thus. Farewell.’
He sprang from the cabin window as he said this, upon
the ice raft which lay close to the vessel. He was soon
borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.
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