01/25/2026
FRANKENSTEIN; OR, THE MODERN PROMETHEUS
by Mary Shelley
LETTERS I-IV
The tale reaches us through a Russian nesting doll of narratives. It begins with Captain Robert Walton, an ambitious English explorer writing letters to his sister, Mrs. Margaret Saville, as his ship sails north on a perilous voyage of discovery towards the North Pole. Trapped in impassable ice, Walton and his crew witness a dreadful sight: a gigantic figure driving a dogsled across the frozen waste. Hours later, they rescue another man, near death and pursuing that same figure, who is brought aboard. This man is Victor Frankenstein.
CHAPTERS I-VI
As Victor recovers, he shares his tragic history with Walton, who records it. Born in Geneva to a wealthy, benevolent family, Victor has an idyllic childhood with his parents, his "more than sister" Elizabeth Lavenza (an orphan they adopt), and his best friend, Henry Clerval. He is consumed from a young age by the secrets of heaven and earth, particularly the "hidden laws of nature." At the University of Ingolstadt, after his mother's tragic death from scarlet fever, he abandons his former studies and becomes obsessed with the "principle of life" itself. In a solitary, manic fervor that lasts two years, he unearths the secret of animating lifeless matter.
CHAPTERS VII-VIII
In a secluded apartment, Victor undertakes a ghastly project: to construct and bestow life upon a living man. He collects "materials" from charnel houses, dissecting rooms, and slaughterhouses. On a dreary November night, his work culminates. He infuses a "spark of being" into the lifeless thing at his feet. The moment the creature's dull yellow eye opens, Victor is seized not by triumph, but by overwhelming horror and disgust at the "catastrophe" he has created. The being is enormous (8 feet tall) and hideous, with watery, shrivelled skin and straight black lips. Victor flees his laboratory. The Creature vanishes into the night.
CHAPTERS I-V
Hounded by a nervous fever, Victor is nursed back to health by Clerval. He tries to forget his "filthy creation" and returns to Geneva after learning of the murder of his young brother, William. On his journey, he catches a glimpse of the monstrous figure in the mountains and becomes convinced the Creature is the killer. His suspicion is confirmed when the innocent family servant, Justine Moritz, is framed for the murder by evidence the Creature planted. Despite Victor's knowledge of the truth, Justine is condemned and executed, adding to Victor's all-consuming guilt. He cries, "I, not in deed, but in effect, was the true murderer."
CHAPTERS VI-IX
To find solace, Victor journeys into the Alps. There, on the Mer de Glace glacier, the Creature confronts him. Surprisingly eloquent and intelligent, the Creature demands that Victor hear his story. He narrates his first days of life: his sensations of cold, hunger, and light; his rejection by all humanity who flee at his sight; his finding shelter in a hovel adjoining a cottage; and his secret, heartfelt education. By observing the impoverished De Lacey family (an old, blind father, Felix, and Agatha), he learns language, philosophy, and history. He comes to love them as unseen benefactor, gathering firewood for them secretly. He nurtures a profound hope that their virtue will overcome their visual prejudice
CHAPTERS I-VII
The Creature's narrative reaches its heartbreak. When he finally attempts to reveal himself to the blind father De Lacey, he is discovered by Felix, who beats him and drives him away. This final, cruel rejection after years of yearning for connection ignotes an "hellish rage" within him. "I am malicious because I am miserable," he declares. He then demands that Victor, his creator, fulfill his responsibility and make for him a female companion, an equal with whom he can flee humanity and live in peace. "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." As a sole right, he insists, "You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being." If Victor complies, he will disappear forever with his mate. If he refuses, the Creature vows, "I will be with you on your wedding-night." Tortured, Victor initially agrees.
CHAPTERS VIII-X
On a remote island in the Orkneys, Victor begins the loathsome work of creating a bride. But one night, looking up at his window, he sees the Creature gazing in, a horrifying smile upon his face. In a moment of profound dread, Victor realizes the potential consequences: a race of devils that could plague mankind. He tears the unfinished female to pieces before the horrified eyes of the Creature, who utters a howl of "devilish despair and revenge." The Creature's final words are a terrible promise: "I will be with you on your wedding-night."
The Creature's vengeance is swift and precise. He murders Henry Clerval, Victor's dearest friend, leaving Victor to be accused of the crime. After a period of imprisonment and illness, Victor returns to Geneva to marry Elizabeth, paralyzed by the knowledge of the Creature's threat but unable to confess it. On their wedding night, certain the Creature means to kill him, he leaves Elizabeth alone. The Creature's true malice is revealed: he strangles Elizabeth, leaving her lifeless body for Victor to find. Victor's father dies of grief soon after. Victor, now utterly alone with every tie of love severed, has but one purpose left: to pursue his creation to the ends of the earth and destroy him.
WALTON, IN CONTINUATION
Victor's narrative to Walton concludes here, on the ship in the Arctic. Exhausted, he dies soon after. Walton, later walking in his ship's cabin, discovers the gigantic Creature himself, hovering over Victor's co**se, weeping in a complex agony of grief, hatred, and self-loathing. The Creature confesses to Walton his wretchedness. "My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy," he laments, but his creator's abandonment and mankind's cruelty made him a "fiend." With his creator dead, his own "abhorred" existence has no further purpose. He vows to travel north, build a funeral pyre, and consume himself in flames, "that my ashes may be swept into the sea by the winds." He springs from the cabin window onto an ice raft and is "borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance."
THE END