Chapter 01 (Frankenstein (Full Cast))

01section three of Frankenstein.

02This librivox recording is in the public domain.

03Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.

04Section three chapter one.

05I am by birth a Genovese, and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic.

06My ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics, and my father had filled several public situations with honour and reputation.

07He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business.

08He passed his younger days perpetually occupied by the affairs of his country.

09A variety of circumstances had prevented his marrying early, nor was it until the decline of life that he became a husband and the father of a family.

10As the circumstances of his marriage illustrate his character, I cannot refrain from relating them.

11One of his most intimate friends was a merchant, who, from a flourishing state, fell, with numerous mischances, into poverty.

12This man, whose name was Beaufort, was of a proud and unbending disposition, and could not bear to live in poverty and oblivion in the same country where he had formerly been distinguished for his rank and magnificence.

13Having paid his debts, therefore, in the most honourable manner, he retreated with his daughter to the town of Lucerne, where he lived unknown and in wretchedness.

14My father loved Beaufort with the truest friendship, and was deeply grieved by his retreat into these unfortunate circumstances.

15He bitterly deplored the false pride which led his friend to a conduct so little worthy of the affection that united them.

16He lost no time in endeavouring to seek him out, with the hope of persuading him to begin the world again through his credit and assistance.

17Beaufort had taken effectual measures to conceal himself, and it was ten months before my father discovered his abode.

18Overjoyed at this discovery, he hastened to the house, which was situated in a mean street near the Royce.

19But when he entered, misery and despair alone welcomed him.

20Beaufort had saved but a very small sum of money from the wreck of his fortunes, but it was sufficient to provide him with sustenance for some months, and in the meantime he hoped to procure some respectable employment in a merchant's house.

21The interval was consequently spent in inaction.

22His grief only became more deep and rankling when he had leisure for reflection, and at length it took so fast hold of his mind that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness, incapable of any exertion.

23His daughter attended him with the greatest tenderness, but she saw with despair that their little fund was rapidly decreasing, and that there was no other prospect of support.

24But Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind of uncommon mould, and her courage rose to support her in her adversity.

25She procured plain work, she plaited straw, and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life.

26Several months passed in this manner.

27Her father grew worse, her time was more entirely occupied in attending him, her means of subsistence decreased, and in the tenth month her father died in her arms, leaving her an orphan and a beggar.

28This last blow overcame her, and she knelt by Beaufort's coffin, weeping bitterly, when my father entered the chamber.

29He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care, and after the interment of his friend he conducted her to Geneva, and placed her under the protection of a relation.

30Two years after this event, Caroline became his wife.

31There was a considerable difference between the ages of my parents, but this circumstance seemed to unite them only closer in bonds of devoted affection.

32There was a sense of justice in my father's upright mind which rendered it necessary that he should approve highly to love strongly.

33Perhaps, during former years, he had suffered from the late discovered unworthiness of one beloved, and so was disposed to set a greater value on tried worth.

34There was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to my mother, differing wholly from the doting fondness of age, for it was inspired by reverence for her virtues, and a desire to be the means of, in some degree, recompensing her for the sorrow she had endured, but which gave inexpressible grace to his behaviour to her.

35Everything was made to yield to her wishes and her convenience.

36He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener, from every rougher wind, and to surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind.

37Her health, and even the tranquillity of her hitherto constant spirit, had been shaken by what she had gone through.

38During the two years that had elapsed previous to their marriage, my father had gradually relinquished all his public functions, and immediately after their union they sought the pleasant climate of Italy, and the change of scene and interest attendant on a tour through that land of wonders, as a restorative for her weakened frame.

39From Italy they visited Germany and France.

40I, their eldest child, was born at Naples, and as an infant accompanied them in their rambles.

41I remained for several years their only child.

42Much as they were attached to each other, they seemed to draw inexhaustible stores of affection from a very mine of love to bestow them upon me.

43My mother's tender caresses and my father's smile of benevolent pleasure while regarding me are my first recollections.

44I was their plaything and their idol, and something better, their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me.

45With this deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life, added to the active spirit of tenderness that animated both, it may be imagined that while during every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self-control, I was so guided by a silken cord that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to me.

46For a long time I was their only care.

47My mother had much desire to have a daughter, but I continued their single offspring.

48When I was about five years old, while making an excursion beyond the frontiers of Italy, they passed a week on the shores of the lake of Como.

49Their benevolent disposition often made them enter the cottages of the poor.

50This, to my mother, was more than a duty.

51It was a necessity, a passion, remembering what she had suffered and how she had been relieved, for her to act in her turn the guardian angel to the afflicted.

52During one of their walks a poor cot in the foldings of a veil attracted their notice as being singularly disconsolate, while the number of half-clothed children gathered about it spoke of penury in its worst shape.

53One day, when my father had gone by himself to Milan, my mother, accompanied by me, visited this abode.

54She found a peasant and his wife, hard-working, bent down by care and labour, distributing a scanty meal to five hungry babes.

55Among these there was one which attracted my mother far above all the rest.

56She appeared of different stock.

57The four others were dark-eyed, hardy little vagrants.

58This child was thin and very fair.

59Her hair was the brightest living gold, and, despite the poverty of her clothing, seemed to set a crown of distinction on her head.

60Her brow was clear and ample, her blue eyes cloudless, and her lips and the moulding of her face so expressive of sensibility and sweetness that none could behold her without looking on her as of a distinct species, a being heaven-sent and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features.

61The peasant woman, perceiving that my mother fixed eyes of wonder and admiration on this lovely girl, eagerly communicated her history.

62She was not her child, but the daughter of a Milanese nobleman.

63Her mother was a German, and had died on giving her birth.

64The infant had been placed with these good people to nurse.

65They were better off then.

66They had not been long married, and their eldest child was but just born.

67The father of their charge was one of those Italians nursed in the memory of the antique glory of Italy, one among the schiavi on your frementi, who exerted himself to obtain the liberty of his country.

68He became the victim of its weakness.

69Whether he had died or still lingered in the dungeons of Austria was not known.

70His property was confiscated.

71His child became an orphan and a beggar.

72She continued with her foster parents, and bloomed in their rude abode, fairer than a garden rose among dark-leaved brambles.

73When my father returned from Milan, he found, playing with me in the hall of our villa, a child fairer than pictured cherub, a creature who seemed to share radiance from her looks, and whose form and motions were lighter than the chamois of the hills.

74The apparition was soon explained.

75With his permission, my mother prevailed on her rustic guardians to yield their charge to her.

76They were fond of the sweet orphan.

77Her presence had seemed a blessing to them.

78But it would be unfair to her to keep her in poverty and want when Providence afforded her such powerful protection.

79They consulted their village priest, and the result was that Elizabeth LaVenza became the inmate of my parents' house, my more than sister, the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures.

80Everyone loved Elizabeth.

81The passionate and almost reverential attachment with which all regarded her became, while I shared it, my pride and my delight.

82On the evening previous to her being brought to my home, my mother had said playfully, I have a pretty present for my victor.

83Tomorrow he shall have it.

84And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally, and looked upon Elizabeth as mine, mine to protect, love, and cherish.

85All praises bestowed on her I received as made to a possession of my own.

86We called each other familiarly by the name of cousin.

87No word, no expression, could body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me.

88My more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only.

89End of section 3