The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-03-11
Mary WoOIstonecraft Shelley
and frankenStein

wife of the eccentric and cratic poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley, was born in 1898
With no reflection against her it is
right to state that she was first al
affinity, and afterward really became
a wife in 1916. The unton, however
to Shelley, contrary to his previou:
marital experience, was said to have
been one of extreme felicity. Aftel
his Inflated death she edited his po
ems. In her earliest preface to Frank
enstein she mentions how they were
first thrown into company with the
poet Byron.
Springing from a family, the God
wins, famed in letters, her husband
was very anxious that she shoulo
prove herself worthy her parentage
In the summer of 1916 they visited
Switzerland and became the neighbor.
of Byron, who was then engaged II
completing the famous third canto OF
Childe Harold. The three stood each
other off, with the promise of ghost
stories. Another joined the trio (Pol-
idorD and together they set to then
tasks. With no religious ballast, anC
with kindred thoughts and inclinations
the two poets in their conversations
confirmed Mrs. Shelley in her natur-
ally skeptical and materialistic ideas
Galvanism was already being dis
cussed with the possibility of reaimat-
ing the dead. The possibility of du-
plicating human life was made prob
able with the teaching that life was
merely a resultant principle, and not
an original one. Given a machine with
all the accessories of a we'll developed
human body, and life would result OF
could be impaired with no serious eff
fort.
Originating in this line of thought
what was at first to prove simple
harmless ghost story, enlarged into the
nightmare of "Frankinstein or the
Modern Prometheus.'' Aside from
this Mrs. Shelley wrote "Valparga,, -
The Last Man." 'Lodore'' and THE
Fortunes of Perkin Starbeck" She
died February /, 1851
The recorded antecedents of Frank
enstein's creation are the Adamic Gre
alton as given in Genesis, and the
classic myth of Pygmalion's ivory
image, being called to life. In the
one case, the aHwise and unseen God
called life to the clay. In the other
the sensuous kiss of Aphrodite was re-
quired. In neither case was it indi-
Gated or admitted that man, pure and
unaided, could impart life to inanimate
OBJECTS. You all remember the apt
Language of the Scotchman. when the
pastor quoted scripture from which to
prove that AS in Adam all were dead
in tresspasses, so in Christ would all
be made alive" Aye" said the dis
ciple of John Knox, "Puir Adam, What
better could ye expect o. a man wha
niver had a mither'' At the date OF
the publication of "Frankenstein, fc-
tlon as now existing was merely hint
ed, IN the world of letters The real
istic and marvellous in authorship had
hardly been so divided as to be termed
schools. Mary Shelley had evidently
been possessed of the thought that af-
terward possessed such minds as those
OF Verne and Haggard, the determi-
nation to impart something new to lit
erature. She, however, lacked the
studied consistency of Verne, who never
fails to contrive some reasonable hy-
pothesis on which to base results. and
she made no effort to uncover from the
caves the hieroglyphics that should
trace to the original source King
Solomon's Mines
The story is incongruous and abounds
IN impossible results, but let us con-
slider it in brief: The story is really a
by-play, which, in its way, absorbs the
real play. party named Walton Is
possessed with a determination to seek
the northern polar regions He writes
a series of letter to his sister, first
from st. Petersburg, next from Arch
angel, and afterward from the ice
ridden seas beyond Nova Zembla
Here the by-play begins. First. the
NoyaSers notice a semi-human being
of unusual size making his way with a
sledge over the ice fields. Not lone
after F'fankenstein comes in sight
and on receiving assurances that the
vessel is directing toward the pole is
received on board. He then relates
MS personal history, and this is the
story of Frankenstein: He was born in
Geneva, Switzerland, with very happy
surroundings. After good preliminary
culture at Geneva, he became a stu
dent of the University Of Ingolstadt.
lie became devotee to the study of
chemistry and early became possessed
with the idea that he could by close
chemical research reproduce the HUI
man frame and impart life to it. The
model upon which he was laboring
was carefully excluded from the sight
OF others. At last he has completed
his chemical man, but, unfortunately
the great central thought of impart-
ing life had so controlled him as to
exclude the matter of symmetry. In
other words, the completed man was
SIMPLY a completed monster in appear
ance. The mere construction or me-
chanical development had excluded the
esthetic, and when he impaired life 10
the machine he had created he found
II TO tie not only giant in size, but
out Of proportion in other particulars.
anu strange to say, he Immediately
conceived deep adherence for the
being he had brought into existence.
III became in his eyes both brute and
hend, and this, the product of two years
labor, now that it had an organized
existence, became hideous nightmare
TO him. He sought in every way to
avoid contact with it. At just the
ume that his new creation needed the
ald or its creator Frankenstein was
studiously avoiding it. He shortly
hears OF the murder of his brother.
William, and hurries home to find to
ms own certainty that his late crea-
ton has done the deed Here Frank
enstein develops a craven spirit. The
ihade man m-m- for shor) had trans
Aefred picture of Frankenstein' S
mother from the murdered boy to Jus
tine Moritz, a servant girl, and she is
apprehended for the murder. Frank
ehstesn, rather than unseal his lips.