It was a dark and stormy night. Lord Byron, Mary Godwin (who would soon become Mary Shelley), Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John William Polidori were sheltering inside a Swiss castle reading ghost stories to one another to pass the time. Noting that everyone present had literary aspirations Byron challenged the assembly to each write a ghost story. This night was perhaps the most important literary night in history as both science fiction and vampire literature were birthed. Collected here for the first time are the four works produces as a result of that contest «Fragment Of A Ghost Story» by Percy Bysshe Shelley, «The Vampyre» by John William Polidori, «Fragment of a Novel» By Lord Byron, and of course, Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.
This is a high quality book of the original classic edition. <p> This is a freshly published edition of this culturally important work, which is now, at last, again available to you. <p> Enjoy this classic work. These few paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside: <p>
But supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind, to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.
<p>....But I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy, and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most severe evil, I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejection. <p>.... A youth passed in solitude, my best years spent under your gentle and feminine fosterage, has so refined the groundwork of my character that I cannot overcome an intense distaste to the usual brutality exercised on board ship: I have never believed it to be necessary, and when I heard of a mariner equally noted for his kindliness of heart and the respect and obedience paid to him by his crew, I felt myself peculiarly fortunate in being able to secure his services.
<p>....I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness, but there are moments when, if anyone performs an act of kindness towards him or does him any the most trifling service, his whole countenance is lighted up, as it were, with a beam of benevolence and sweetness that I never saw equalled.
<p>....I said in one of my letters, my dear Margaret, that I should find no friend on the wide ocean; yet I have found a man who, before his spirit had been broken by misery, I should have been happy to have possessed as the brother of my heart.
Eager science student Victor Frankenstein uses body parts of the dead to bring a creature to life. Although initially excited that his experiment is a success, Frankenstein becomes horrified at the grotesque being that stands before him and flees. Angered by the rejection, The Monster retaliates by taking the lives of those dearest to Frankenstein. The decision to play God torments both Frankenstein and The Monster he created until the end of their days.