Letter 2, Frankenstein audiobook

Letter II of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, read by Anna Butterworth

Episode Transcript

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Letter two Archangel, March twenty eighthseventeen to missus Saville, England. How
slowly the time passes here, encompassedas I am by frost and snow,
Yet a second step is taken towardsmy enterprise. I have hired a vessel

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and am occupied in collecting my sailors. Those whom I have already engaged appear
to be men on whom I candepend, and are certainly possessed of dauntless
courage. But I have one wantwhich I have never yet been able to
satisfy, and the absence of theobject of which I now feel as a
most severe evil. I have nofriend, Margaret. When I am glowing

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with the enthusiasm of success, therewill be none to participate my joy.
If I am assailed by disappointment,no one will endeavor to sustain me.
In dejection, I shall commit mythoughts to paper, it is true,
but that is a poor medium forthe communications of feeling. I desire the

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company of a man who could sympathizewith 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 aswell as of a capacious mind, whose

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tastes are like my own, toapprove or amend my plans. How would
such a friend repair the faults ofyour poor brother. I am too ardent
in execution and too impatient of difficulties. But it is a still greater evil
to me than I am self educated. For the first fourteen years of my

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life, I ran wild on acommon and read nothing but our uncle Thomas's
books of voyages. At that ageI became acquainted with the celebrated poets of
our own country. But it wasonly when it could cease to be in
my power to derive its most importantbenefits from such a conviction, that I
perceive the necessity of becoming acquainted withmore languages than that of my native country.

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Now I am twenty eight, andam in reality more illiterate than many
schoolboys of fifteen. It is truethat I have thought more, and that
my day dreams are more extended andmagnificent. But they want, as the
painters call it, keeping, andI greatly need a friend who would have
sense enough not to despise me asromantic and affection enough for me to endeavor

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to regulate my mind. Well,these are useless complaints. I shall certainly
find no friends on the wide ocean, nor even here an archangel among merchants
and seamen. Yet some feelings,unallied to the dross of human nature be
even in these rugged bosoms. Mylieutenant, for instance, is a man

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of wonderful courage enterprise. He ismadly 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 ofthe noblest endowments of humanity. I

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first became acquainted with him on boarda whale vessel, Finding that he was
unemployed in this city, I easilyengaged him to assist in my enterprise.
The Master is a person of anexcellent disposition, and is remarkable in the
ship for his gentleness and the mildnessof his discipline. This circumstance, added

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to his well known integrity and dauntlesscourage, may be very desirous to engage
him. A youth passed in solitude, my best years spent under your gentle
and feminine fosterage has so refined thegroundwork of my character that I cannot own
forcome an intense distaste to the usualbrutality exercised on board ship. I have

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never believed it to be necessary.And when I heard of a mariner equally
noted for his kindliness of heart andthe respect and obedience paid to him by
his crew, I felt myself pecurelyfortunate in being able to secure his services.
I heard of him first in rathera romantic manner, from a lady

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who owes to him the happiness ofher life. This briefly is his story.
Some years ago, he loved ayoung Russian lady of moderate fortune,
and, having amassed a considerable sumin prize money, the father of the
girl consented to the match. Hesaw his mistress once before the destined ceremony,
but she was bathed in tears,and, throwing herself at his feet,

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entreated him to spare her, confessingat the same time that she loved
another, but that he was poor, and that her father would never consent
to the union. My generous friendreassured the suppliant, and, on being
informed of the name of her loverinstantly abandoned his pursuit. He had already

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bought a farm with his money,on which he had designed to pass the
remainder of his life, But hebestowed the whole on his rival, together
with the remains of his prize moneyto purchase stock, and then himself solicited
the young woman's father to consent toher marriage with her lover. But the
old man decidedly refused, thinking himselfbound in honor to my friend, whom,

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when he found the father inexorable,quitted his country nor returned until he
heard that his former mistress was marriedaccording to her inclinations. What a noble
fellow, yuill exclaim he is so, But then he is wholly uneducated.
He is as silent as a turk, and a kind of ignorant carelessness attends

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him, which, while it rendershis conduct, the more astonishing from the
interest and sympathy which otherwise he wouldcommand. Yet do not suppose because I
complain a little, or because Ican conceive a consolation from my toils which
I may never know, that Iam wavering in my resolutions. Those are

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as fixed as fate, and myvoyage is only now delayed until the weather
shall permit my embarkation. The winterhas been dreadfully severe, but the spring
promises well, and it is consideredas a remarkably early season, so that
perhaps I may sail sooner than Iexpected. I shall do nothing rashly.

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You know me sufficiently to confide inmy 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 communicate to you a
conception of the trembling sensation, halfpleasurable and half fearful, with which I

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am preparing to depart. I amgoing to unexplored regions, to the land
of mist and snow, but Ishall 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 ancientmariner. You will smile at my allusion,

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but I will disclose a secret.I have often attributed my attachment to
my passionate enthusiasm for the dangerous mysteriesof ocean, to that production of the
most imaginative of modern poets. Thereis something at work in my soul,
which I do not understand. Iam practically industrious, painstaking, a workman

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to execute with perseverance and labor.But besides this, there is a love
for the marvelous, a belief inthe marvelous, intertwined in all my projects,
which hurries me out of the commonand pathways of men, even to
the wild sea and unvisited regions Iam about to explore, but to return

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to dear considerations. Shall I meetyou again after having traversed immense sees and
returned by the most southern cape ofAfrica or America. I dare not expect
such success, yet I cannot bearto look on the reverse of the picture.
Continue for the present to write tome by every opportunity I may receive

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your letters on some occasions when Ineed the most to support my spirits.
I love you very tenderly, rememberme with affection, should you never hear
from me again, Your affectionate brother, Robert Walton