Frankenstein
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Frontispiece, first illustrated edition 1831Original title
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
First publication
1818
Literary form
Novel
Genre
Literary, science fiction, horror
Writing language
English
Author's country
England
Length
Approx. 78,000 words
Notable lines
You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
— First line
"I agree with you," replied the stranger; "we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves—such a friend ought to be—do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures."
Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity and ruin.
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 the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.
"Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it."
"But soon," he cried with sad and solemn enthusiasm, "I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell."
He sprang from the cabin-window as he said this, upon the ice raft which lay close to the vessel. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.
— Last lines
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