Release Date: October 31, 1993 [eBook #84]
[Most recently updated: May 30, 2005]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-us (us-ASCII)
***Start of the project gutenberg
EBOOK Frankenstein, or the modern
Prometheus***
[Chapters 1-6: mostly scanned by David Meltzer,
Meltzer@cat.syr.edu, proofread, partially typed and
submitted by Christy Phillips, Caphilli@hawk.syr.edu,
submitted on 9/24/93. Proofread by Lynn Hanninen,
submitted 10/93.]
Frankenstein, continued (Chapters 20-24)
Scanned by Judy Boss (boss@cwis.unomaha.edu)
Proofread by Christy Phillips (caphilli@hawk.syr.edu)
Reproofed by Lynn Hanninen (leh1@lehigh.edu)
Margination and last proofing by anonymous volunteers
Letter 1
St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17—
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.
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 forever 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 forever. I shall satiate
my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the
