Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.
quotes from my fav books #3: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
The thing that fascinated me most when I discovered the existence of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was not the story itself (as interesting and original as it was), but the story behind its conception.
How this book was created, and how it came to light.
And above all, I was struck by the story of its creator...Mary Shelley.
She’s the reason why I decided to give a chance to this book in the first place.
Her personal story is full of tragedies: from the loss of her mother to her precocious questionable choices - like running away and marrying Percy Shelley at the age of 16 (after the suicide of his wife, yikes!) - their tormented love story, the loss of many children, being ostracised for her choices, living in constant debt and so much more (check her biography, it’s almost unreal and it’s sound like a movie!).
After their marriage in 1816, they decide to spend the summer in Geneva (Switzerland) in the company of none other than Lord Byron (omg, such a controversial and fun to read about figure!) and John William Polidori.
"It proved a wet, ungenial summer", Mary Shelley wrote in 1831, "and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house".
- from Mary Shelley’s introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein.
This prompted Lord Byron to propose that they “each write a ghost story”, as one does when forced to stay inside during a strangely disturbed summer (like me right now since these days in Italy it is raining non-stop!).
During one of their conversations, they started to talk about the principle of life and the possibility of bringing the corpses back to life: “Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated", Mary noted; "galvanism had given token of such things”.
She couldn't sleep, so she found herself consumed by her imagination as she witnessed the frightening horrors of her "waking dream", her ghostly tale:
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.
- from Mary Shelley's introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein.
You can’t tell me that this is not ICONIC.
Anyway, apart from my fascination with the figure of Mary Shelley, this book is truly a charm.
It concerns itself with big questions and neverending doubts about human existence: our connection to God, the importance of having a family, the dangers of the pursuit of knowledge and ambition, the concept of Sublime Nature (a typical theme for the Romanticism movement), how much good appearance is crucial to survive in a society, being punished through alienation and so much more.
So, without further ado, I encourage you to give Frankenstein a chance if you haven't already read it.
Enjoy!
Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.
“Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemlance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.' - Frankenstein”
My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading.
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 sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.
Nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul can focus its intellectual eye.
I can hardly describe to you the effect of these books. They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection.
A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.
If this rule were always observed; if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved, Caesar would have spared his country, America would have been discovered more gradually, and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed.
But now misery has come home, and men appear to me as monsters thirsting for each other's blood.
Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be his world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.
If I see but one smile on your lips when we meet, occasioned by this or any other exertion of mine, I shall need no other happiness.
“Shall each man," cried he, "find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn.[…]
Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains—revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! […]
Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict.”
It is also a duty owed to yourself; for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness, without which no man is fit for society.
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!
As I read, however, I applied much personally to my own feelings and condition. I found myself similar, yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read, and to whose conversation I was a listener. I sympathized with, and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind, I was dependent on none, and related to none . . . and there was none to lament my annihilation . . . what did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.
My own mind began to grow, watchful with anxoius thoughts.
I hope you enjoyed this little collection of quotes.
In case you missed the first two installments of this series, here they are:
Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week,
Nicole.
one of my favourite books!! and i am also so fascinated with the story behind the novel <3 there's this one thriller novel "the villa" by rachel hawkins which in my opinion (loosely) plays with the whole "mary shelley creating frankestein one summer" event
Frankenstein is by far my favorite novel. I bought it on a whim in Oxford in 2018, but didn't read it (through audiobook, biking to and fro high school) before 2020. I didn't pay much attention, as I tend to daydream more than listen when an audiobook is playing. But when I decided to read it in its physical form a year later, I was starstruck. I immediately fell in love, and I couldn't put it away. I finished it in record time, and it replayed in my mind with a fervor I've not encountered since.
My Penguin black classics edition is filled to the brim with annotations and tabs; it's nearly impossible to read the text. I love it so much I have another Penguin edition (specifically bought for my boyfriend, which is a whole story in and of itself), a secondhand Barnes and Noble Classics edition, a limited special edition from Royal Classics, and whenever I go to a bookstore I always look for a new copy. I've lent my precious Penguin copy to friends and family, who have reported that both the story and my annotations (the workings of a madwoman!) is a joy to read. I love to share this novel with others and its always my first recommendation, almost no matter what they like to read. If anyone asks for a novel to get into classics, it will with no doubt be my first recommendation!
I re-read it every year, in November as I find it a very fitting time, and I annotate in a differently colored pen every time. I might have to start annotating on transparent post-it notes soon, as the pages of my copy is quickly running out of space. Sometimes I go through my "quotes" tabs just for fun, to go back to some of my favorite moments and sayings in the book.
I, too, got pretty obsessed with Mary Shelley and her life. I find her an incredibly fascinating author and person. I've bought her other books too, and from what I can tell I've got pretty much her whole bibliography on my shelf now. I've even read the travelogue she wrote when she eloped with Percy. Actually, my obsession of and love for Frankenstein is what started this newsletter, as I ran out of podcast eps about it on Spotify so I decided to start my own. (Besides, there was so much I would like to dive deep about that no one had yet even touched on!)
I've not a lot of posts yet (life keeps me busy), so you can find my podcast episodes about the novel pretty easily. Please take a listen if you're interested (though I think the production quality from script to recording could be improved...). I'll be writing more about Frankenstein and combine it with topics from art and culture soon. Furthermore, I decided to print some academic papers to read this summer, four out of six which are about Frankenstein... me, obsessed much? oops!
Thank you, Nicole, for sharing all these great quotes from Frankenstein. It is truly a book I think everyone should read at least once in their life.