Page 5 - Mary Shelley

FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS
Dr. Frankenstein has been studying for a long time how to give life to an inanimate body and, encouraged by his progress, he puts his project into effect one night. The experiment will prove to be a failure: he has created a deformed monster.
CHAPTER FOUR
When I found myself in possession of such an amazing faculty, I hesitated for a long
time about how to use it. I had the ability to infuse life, yet preparing a body, with its tangles of veins, muscles and fibers, apt to receive it, remained still a difficult undertaking, an awkward fatigue. I first asked myself if I should try to create a being like myself or a simpler structure, but my imagination, inflamed by success, did not make me doubt that I could create a complex and wonderful animal like man. Although the materials available to me at that time seemed inadequate for this bold undertaking, I was confident that I would reach the goal. I prepared myself to face a number of setbacks: my attempts could be in vain and in the end my work turned out to be imperfect but, considering the advances that are taking place today in the scientific and mechanical fields, I felt encouraged to try; I would have, if nothing else, laid the foundations for future success. Not even the vastness and complexity of the project were sufficient arguments to make me consider what I proposed to be unworkable. With these feelings I started the creations of a human being. Since the small dimensions constituted a serious hindrance to the rapidity of my work, I decided, contrary to my first intention, to construct a gigantic being, about eight feet1 tall and of actually robust build. Having established this point, and after a few months spent gathering and arranging the necessary material, I began.
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CHAPTER FIVE
It was on a gloomy November night that I saw the fulfillment of my labors. With anxiety
similar to anguish, I gathered the instruments with which I would transmit the spark of life to the inanimate thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain beat lugubrious against the glass, the candle was almost consumed when, amid the gleams of the dying light, my creature opened its opaque and yellowish eyes, took a laborious breath and a convulsive motion2 stirred its limbs. How can I describe my