Page 6 - Mary Shelley

emotion to that catastrophe, describe the miserable being I had shaped with so much care and so much pain? The body was proportionate and I had modeled his features3 thinking of the sublime. Sublime? Great God! The yellow skin barely covered the intertwining of the muscles and veins; the thick hair was of a shining black and the teeth of pearly whiteness; but these beauties made the contrast with the watery, grayish eyes, like the sockets in which they sank, the earthy color, the drawn and black lips all the more horrifying.
Life does not offer events as changeable as human feelings are. I had worked hard for almost two years just to infuse life into an inanimate body. For this I had given up rest and health. I had desired it with immoderate intensity4, but now that I had reached the goal the fascination of the dream faded away, infinite horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to sustain the sight of the being I had created, I escaped from the laboratory and for a long time walked back and forth in my bedroom, unable to sleep. Eventually the exhaustion5 took over the initial turmoil and I threw myself on the bed, looking for some oblivion. In vain! I slept, it's true, but agitated by the strangest dreams. I seemed to see Elizabeth6, in the prime of health, on the streets of Ingolstadt7. Surprised and joyful, I embraced him; but as I impressed the first kiss on his lips they became livid, the color of death; his features were transformed and I had the impression of holding in my arms the corpse of my mother, wrapped in the shroud. The worms swarmed in the folds of the fabric. I woke up wincing; a cold sweat beaded my forehead, my teeth chattered and my limbs were seized by a convulsive tremor when - in the veiled moonlight that crept through the closed shutters - I saw the miserable creature, the monster I created. He held up the curtains of the bed and his eyes, if one can speak of eyes, were fixed on me. He opened his jaws, making inarticulate sounds as a grin crunched his cheeks. Perhaps he had spoken, but I didn't hear; he had reached out his hand, as if to restrain me, but I fled from him, rushing down the stairs. I took refuge in the courtyard of the house and spent the rest of the night there, continuing to follow it, very agitated, and keeping an eye on every noise announcing the arrival of the diabolical corpse to which I had unfortunately given birth. Oh! No mortal could have borne the horror of his appearance! A mummy brought back to life would not have been as creepy as that repulsive being. I had observed it when it was not yet finished: even then it was unpleasant, but when the muscles and joints had assumed the capacity for motion it had become something that not even Dante