I just finished Frankenstein. It was nothing like what I expected.

A plot that meandered through life’s meaning, the relationship between the creator and created, guilty and innocent; all upon the backdrop of 18th-century England.

The plot’s tempo fluctuates, at times sprinting ahead and at others, inching along.

The protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, consistently makes grievous errors, leaving readers astutely observing the looming consequences that elude him.

Curiously, the creature he assembles, though referred to as “the monster,” remains conspicuously nameless throughout the story.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“One secret which 1 alone possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated myself; and the moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places.”

“No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence.”

“Think you that the groans of Clerval were music to my ears? My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.”

“But I forget that I am moralizing in the most interesting part of my tale, and your looks remind me to proceed.”