Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus E-Book

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

• Herausgeber: POST Service & Consulting Limited [email protected] Independence Ave. 1523 00000 Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by Mary Shelley and first published in 1818. It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. The novel explores themes of ambition, hubris, isolation, and the consequences of playing god.

Considered one of the earliest works of science fiction, Frankenstein has had a significant influence on popular culture and has spawned numerous adaptations in various forms, including films, plays, and other literary works. Despite its initial mixed critical reception, the novel is now widely regarded as a classic of English literature and a seminal work in the Gothic genre.

Leseprobe

Frankenstein;

or, the Modern Prometheus

by Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley

Letter 1 

To Mrs. Saville, England.

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ST. PETERSBURGH, DEC. 11th, 17—.

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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.

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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 for ever 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, 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 for ever. 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 laborious 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 tranquillise 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.

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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 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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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.

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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 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.

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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.

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YOUR AFFECTIONATE BROTHER,

R. Walton

Letter 2 

To Mrs. Saville, England.

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ARCHANGEL, 28TH MARCH, 17—.

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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.

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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 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 sympathise 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

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.

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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.

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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, 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 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.

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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.

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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,

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.

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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 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.

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YOUR AFFECTIONATE BROTHER,

Robert Walton