17 - Chapter 19. Frankenstein by Mary W. Shelley.

17 - Chapter 19. Frankenstein by Mary W. Shelley.  
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Gothic horror novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley that was first published in 1818. The epistolary story follows a scientific genius who brings to life a terrifying monster that torments its creator. It is considered one of the first science-fiction novels. An international sensation, the story has been adapted hundreds of times in different media and has influenced pop culture at large.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information, please visit LibriVox dot
blogsom dot com. This reading by Meghen Jane Daniels, Suiassu
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Chapter nineteen. London was our present

(00:21):
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

(00:44):
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

(01:04):
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

(01:28):
insurmountable barrier placed between me and my fellow men. This
barrier was sealed with the blood 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

(01:51):
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

(02:11):
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

(02:33):
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

(02:54):
continually falling on the head. Every thought that was devoted
to it was an extreme and ash, and every 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.

(03:14):
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 again view mountains and streams,
and all the wondrous works with which nature adorns her

(03:37):
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

(04:00):
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 labors in
some obscure nook in the northern Highlands of Scotland. We
quitted London on the twenty seventh of March and remained
a few days at Windsor, rambling in its beautiful forest.

(04:21):
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

(04:41):
here that Charles the First 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 Sun,
gave a peculiar interest to every part of the city

(05:04):
which they might have 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

(05:24):
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. I enjoyed this scene and

(05:49):
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. Disconsent never
visited my mind, and if ever I was overcome by
an annui, the sight of what is beautiful in nature,

(06:09):
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, erect humanity, pitiable to others,

(06:33):
and intolerable to myself. We passed a considerable period at Oxford,
rambling amongst its environs and endeavoring 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

(06:55):
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 remembrances. For an instant I dared to shake
off my chains and look around me with a free

(07:17):
and 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
neighborhood of this village resembled to a greater degree the

(07:38):
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 Chamonique. The

(08:01):
latter name made me tremble when pronounced by Henry, and
I hastened to quit Matlock, with which that terrible scene
was thus associated from Darby still journeying Northwoods, we passed
two months in Cumberland and Westmoreland. I can now almost
fancy myself amongst the Swiss mountains. The little patches of

(08:23):
snow which yet lingered on the northern sides of the mountains.
The lakes, and the dashing of the rocking 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

(08:44):
mind expanded in the company of men of talent, and
he found in his own nature greater capacities and resources
than he could have ever imagined himself to have possessed.
While he associated with his inferiors. I could pass my
life here, he said to me, and among these mountains,
I should scarcely regret Switzerland and the Rhine. But he

(09:05):
found that a traveler'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 he also forsakes for other novelties. We had scarcely

(09:28):
visited the various lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, 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.

(09:51):
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 and overcome by
a thousand fears. And when they arrived and I saw

(10:13):
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 range of

(10:35):
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 some horrible curse upon
my head, as mortal as that of crime. I visited
Edinburgh with languid eyes and mind, and yet that city

(10:56):
might have interested the most unfortunate being. Ville 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, Sir Bernard's Well, and the Pentland Hills compensated

(11:18):
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 Cooper,
Saint Andrew's and along the banks of the Tay to
Perth were our friend gree to this. But I was
in no mood to laugh and talk with strangers, or

(11:40):
enter into their feelings or plans with the good humor
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

(12:01):
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 when

(12:24):
these Scotch people whom I do not know, hasten. Then,
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

(12:46):
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 labors.
It was a place fitted for such a work, being
hardly more than a rock whose sides were continually beaten

(13:06):
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

(13:27):
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

(13:50):
door was off its hinges. I ordered it to be repaired,
brought some furniture, and took possession. An incident which would
doubtless have occasioned some so prize, had not all the
senses of the cottages 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

(14:11):
gave so much. Does suffering blunt even the coarsest sensations
of men. In this retreat, I devoted the morning to labor,
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 and dashed at my feet.
It was a monotonous, yet ever changing scene. I thought

(14:34):
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 the play of a
lively infant when compared to the roarings of the giant ocean.

(14:57):
In this manner I distributed my occupations when I first arrived,
But as I proceeded in my labor, 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

(15:20):
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 labor, 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

(15:45):
the most detestable occupation, immersed in a solitude where nothing
could for an instant call my attention from the actual
scene in 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

(16:08):
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 meantime, I worked on, and my labor was

(16:29):
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