Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1818). (* * *)
Noteworthy Excerpts
"Yet, when I am dead, if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance should conduct him to you, swear that he shall not live--swear that he shall not triumph over my accumulated woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes. He is eloquent and persuasive, and once his words had even power over my heart; but trust him not. His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiendlike malice. Hear him not; call on the names of William, Justine, Clerval, Elizabeth, my father, and of the wretched Victor, and thrust your sword into his heart. I will hover near and direct the steel aright."
-Victor Frankenstein to Capt. Walton
Turning towards the men, he said, "What do you mean? What do you demand of your
captain? Are you, then, so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this
a glorious expedition? "And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was
smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and
terror, because at every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth and
your courage exhibited, because danger and death surrounded it, and these you
were to brave and overcome. For this was it a glorious, for this was it an
honorable undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors of
your species, your names adored as belonging to brave men who encountered death
for honor and the benefit of mankind. And now, behold, with the first
imagination of danger, or, if you will, the first mighty and terrific trial of
your courage, you shrink away and are content to be handed down as men who had
not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were
chilly and returned to their warm - firesides. Why, that requires not this
preparation; ye need not have come thus far and dragged your captain to the
shame of a defeat merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh! Be men, or be more
than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of
such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you
say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of
disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered
and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe."
-Victor trying to rally Walton's men to push
forth in the pursuit of the creature