![Book Cover of Frankenstein](/image/book/frankenstein.webp)
Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
'Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus' Summary
Captain Walton's introductory narrative
Frankenstein is a frame story written in epistolary form. It documents a fictional correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville. The story takes place in the eighteenth century (the letters are dated as "17-"). Robert Walton is a failed writer who sets out to explore the North Pole in hopes of expanding scientific knowledge. During the voyage, the crew spots a dog sled driven by a gigantic figure. A few hours later, the crew rescues a nearly frozen and emaciated man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein has been in pursuit of the gigantic man observed by Walton's crew. Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion; he sees in Walton the same obsession that has destroyed him and recounts a story of his life's miseries to Walton as a warning. The recounted story serves as the frame for Frankenstein's narrative.
Victor Frankenstein's narrative
Victor begins by telling of his childhood. Born in Naples, Italy, into a wealthy Genevan family, Victor and his younger brothers, Ernest and William, are sons of Alphonse Frankenstein and the former Caroline Beaufort. From a young age, Victor has a strong desire to understand the world. He is obsessed with studying theories of alchemists, though when he is older he realizes that such theories are considerably outdated. When Victor is five years old, his parents adopt Elizabeth Lavenza, the orphaned daughter of an expropriated Italian nobleman, whom Victor later marries. Victor's parents later take in another child, Justine Moritz, who becomes William's nanny.
Weeks before he leaves for the University of Ingolstadt in Germany, his mother dies of scarlet fever; Victor buries himself in his experiments to deal with the grief. At the university, he excels at chemistry and other sciences, soon developing a secret technique to impart life to non-living matter. He undertakes the creation of a humanoid, but due to the difficulty in replicating the minute parts of the human body, Victor makes the Creature tall, about 8 feet (2.4 m) in height, and proportionally large. Despite Victor's selecting its features to be beautiful, upon animation the Creature is instead hideous, with watery white eyes and yellow skin that barely conceals the muscles and blood vessels underneath. Repulsed by his work, Victor flees. While wandering the streets the next day, he meets his childhood friend, Henry Clerval, and takes Henry back to his apartment, fearful of Henry's reaction if he sees the monster. However, when Victor returns to his laboratory, the Creature is gone.
Victor falls ill from the experience and is nursed back to health by Henry. After a four-month recovery, he receives a letter from his father notifying him of the murder of his brother William. Upon arriving in Geneva, Victor sees the Creature near the crime scene and becomes convinced that his creation is responsible. Justine Moritz, William's nanny, is convicted of the crime after William's locket, which contained a miniature portrait of Caroline, is found in her pocket. Victor knows that no one will believe him if he tries to clear Justine's name, and she is hanged. Ravaged by grief and guilt, Victor retreats into the mountains. While he hikes through Mont Blanc's Mer de Glace, he is suddenly approached by the Creature, who pleads for Victor to hear his tale.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1818Genre/Category
Tags/Keywords
Author
![Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley image](/thumbs/image/author/mary-shelley.webp)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
England
Mary Shelley lived a literary life. Her father encouraged her to learn to write by composing letters, and her favorite occupation as a child was writing stories. Unfortunately, all of Mary's juvenilia...
More on Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books
![The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-strength-of-gideon-and-other-stories.webp)
The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories by Paul Laurence Dunbar
In the vibrant tapestry of African American literature, Paul Laurence Dunbar's "The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories" stands as a testament to the...
![The Wild Huntress Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-wild-huntress.webp)
The Wild Huntress by Thomas Mayne Reid
In the wilds of America, a beautiful woman with a dark secret is on the hunt. Her name is Marian Holt, and she is a skilled hunter and tracker. She i...
![Zastrozzi, A Romance Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/zastrozzi-a-romance.webp)
Zastrozzi, A Romance by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Zastrozzi: A Romance is a Gothic novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley first published in 1810 in London by George Wilkie and John Robinson anonymously, with...
![The Dark Road: Further Adventures of Chéri-Bibi Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-dark-road-further-adventures-of-cheri-bibi.webp)
The Dark Road: Further Adventures of Chéri-Bibi by Gaston Leroux
It is a sequel to the original "Chéri-Bibi" and follows the further adventures of the eponymous character, a convict who has been wrongfully accused o...
![She Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/she.webp)
She by H. Rider Haggard
She, subtitled A History of Adventure, is a novel by the English writer H. Rider Haggard, published in book form in 1887 following serialisation in Th...
![The Castle of Otranto Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-castle-of-otranto.webp)
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
The Castle of Otranto is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition...
![The Phantom of the Opera Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-phantom-of-the-opera.webp)
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
A masterly mix of romance, drama, mystery, suspense, love and jealousy, The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux will haunt you long after you've tur...
![The Mystery of the Sycamore Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-mystery-of-the-sycamore.webp)
The Mystery of the Sycamore by Carolyn Wells
"A mysterious death in the shadow of a sycamore tree sets the stage for a classic whodunit." In this mystery novel, Carolyn Wells tells the story of...
![Lonesome Land Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/lonesome-land.webp)
Lonesome Land by B. M. Bower
In the harsh and unforgiving land of Lonesome, a young woman must learn to survive on her own. Lonesome Land is a novel by B. M. Bower, first publish...
![The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-man-that-corrupted-hadleyburg-and-other-stories.webp)
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories by Mark Twain
"The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" is a piece of short fiction by Mark Twain. It first appeared in Harper's Monthly in December 1899, and was subsequ...
Reviews for Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus
No reviews posted or approved, yet...