A little bit of literature

“After so much time spent in painful labour*, to arrive at once at the summit of my desires was the most gratifying consummation of my toils. But this discovery was so great and overwhelming that all the steps by which I had been progressively led to it were obliterated, and I beheld only the result. What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp. Not that, like a magic scene, it all opened upon me at once: the information I had obtained was of a nature rather to direct my endeavours** so soon as I should point them towards the object of my search than to exhibit that object already accomplished. I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and seemingly ineffectual light. I see by your eagerness and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be; listen patiently until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that subject.”

*Labor - American English.

** Endeavors - American English.

Vocabulary build-up

The noun toil means “exhausting labor or effort; hard or exhausting work.” Close synonyms are “effort”, “hard work”, and “strife.”

The adjective glimmering means “shining faintly or unsteadily.” The noun glimmer means “a dim or intermittent flicker or flash of light.”

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This month we will celebrate Women’s History Month, with four of the most famous English women writers. To begin this series, we bring Mary Shelley, who was an acclaimed British novelist, especially for her Gothic novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”, written in 1818. She was the daughter of philosopher and political writer William Godwin and famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Sadly for Shelley, she never really knew her mother, who died shortly after her birth. In her early life, although she didn't have a formal education, she did make great use of her father's extensive library, and the fact that she married one of her father's political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, contributed to her career as a novelist. Her masterpiece is also the world’s most famous work of horror fiction. Frankenstein is a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity. Shelley's timeless gothic novel presents the epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific vanity, and horror.