Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus: Large Print

By: Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft

I am already far north of London, and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh, I feel a coldnorthern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves and fills me with delight. Do youunderstand this feeling? This breeze, which has travelled from the regions towards which I amadvancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, mydaydreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seatof frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty anddelight. There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible, its broad disk just skirting the horizon anddiffusing a perpetual splendour. There-for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust inpreceding navigators-there snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we maybe wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on thehabitable globe. Its productions and features may be without example, as the phenomena of theheavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in acountry of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle andmay regulate a thousand celestial observations that require only this voyage to render theirseeming eccentricities consistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of apart of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot ofman. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death andto induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in alittle boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. Butsupposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which Ishall confer on all mankind, to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole tothose countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining thesecret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such asmine.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08R7GY6V4
• ISBN13: 9798584804299
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.5" x 11.0"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

"Curssed, curssed, creator." - The monster

Victor grew up reading the works of Paracelsus, Agrippa, and Albertus Magnus, the alchemists of the time. Toss in a little natural philosophy (sciences) and you have the making of a monster. Or at least a being that, after being spurned for looking ugly, becomes ugly. So, for revenge, the creature decides that unless Victor makes another (female this time) creature, Victor will also suffer the loss of friends and relatives. What is Victor to do? Bow to the wishes and needs of his creation? Or challenge it to “the death”? What would you do? Although the concept of the monster is good, and the conflicts of the story are well thought out, Shelly suffers from the writing style of the time. Many people do not finish the book as the language is stilted and verbose, for example, when was the last time you said, "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 of death." Much of the book seems like a travel log filler. More time is spent describing the surroundings of Europe than the reason for traveling or just traveling. Many writers use traveling to reflect time passing or the character growing in stature or knowledge. In this story, they just travel a lot. This book is worth plodding through for moviegoers. The record needs to be set straight. The first shock is that the creator is named Victor Frankenstein; the creature is referred to as a "monster", not Frankenstein. It is Victor who is backward, which adds to his doing the impossible by not knowing any better. The monster is well-read in "Sorrows of a Young Werther," "Paradise Lost," and Plutarch's "Lives." The debate (mixed with a few murders) rages on as to whether the monster was doing evil because of his nature or because he was spurned.