Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (Edition 1831)

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A mentally unstable genius, Victor Frankenstein, inspired by the dreams of ancient alchemists and empowered by modern science, creates a humanoid but fails to nurture and educate it after it comes to life. It wanders alone into a hostile world, where fear of its size and ugliness subjects it to violence and ostracism, which in time it learns to blame upon its maker. As compensation for its suffering, it demands that he create a companion with whom to share its outcast life. Moved by the creature's account of its sufferings, the scientist agrees, but a long period of procrastination awakens doubts that ultimately cause him to break his promise. In retaliation, the creature begins a campaign of vengeance. Although its serious crimes are limited to those which will wound his maker's heart, Victor imagines much more widespread harm, supposing the human race itself to be the creature's intended victim. There then follows a chase into the frozen north, which the creature prolongs so as to de