The New Annotated Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Author:Mary Shelley [Shelley, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Liveright
Published: 2017-08-12T04:00:00+00:00

1. Chapter 10 in the 1831 edition.

2. Arveiron is a glacial tributary of Mont Blanc, its source at Montanvert before it joins the Arve. It was described as “rav[ing] ceaselessly” in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1802 poem “Hymn before Sun-rise, in the Vale of Chaumouni.” Mary Shelley described it in letter 4 in Six Weeks’ Tour: “[T]he river rolls forth impetuously from an arch of ice, and spreads itself in many streams over a vast space of the valley, ravaged and laid bare by its inundations” (156).

3. The two preceding sentences do not appear in the 1831 edition and are replaced by the following:

I spent the following day roaming through the valley. I stood beside the sources of the Arveiron, which take their rise in a glacier, that with slow pace is advancing down from the summit of the hills to barricade the valley. The abrupt sides of vast mountains were before me; the icy wall of the glacier overhung me; a few shattered pines were scattered around; and the solemn silence of this glorious presence-chamber of imperial nature was broken only by the brawling waves or the fall of some vast fragment, the thunder sound of the avalanche or the cracking, reverberated along the mountains, of the accumulated ice, which, through the silent working of immutable laws, was ever and anon rent and torn, as if it had been but a plaything in their hands.”

In addition to eliminating the presence of the family, Mary Shelley has removed Victor’s commentary on the effect of the scenery on him, leaving only description.

4. This and the following eight sentences are substantially revised in the 1831 edition, as follows:

I retired to rest at night; my slumbers, as it were, waited on and ministered to by the assemblance of grand shapes which I had contemplated during the day. They congregated round me; the unstained snowy mountain-top, the glittering pinnacle, the pine woods, and ragged bare ravine, the eagle, soaring amidst the clouds—they all gathered round me and bade me be at peace.

Where had they fled when the next morning I awoke? All of soul-inspiriting fled with sleep, and dark melancholy clouded every thought. The rain was pouring in torrents, and thick mists hid the summits of the mountains, so that I even saw not the faces of those mighty friends. Still I would penetrate their misty veil and seek them in their cloudy retreats. What were rain and storm to me? My mule was brought to the door, and I resolved to ascend to the summit of Montanvert.

These seem to be changes made purely to reflect Victor’s solitary trip.

5. The Thomas Text replaces the two previous sentences with: “The affectionate smile with which Elizabeth welcomed my altered mood excited me to greater exertion; and I felt as I spoke long forgotten sensations of pleasure arise in my mind. I knew that this state of being would only be temporary, that gloom and misery was near at hand, but this knowledge only acted as a stimulant,

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