Flash of lightning illuminated the object and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy demon to whom [he] had given life. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein ch7 p60
His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath. His watery eyes - they seemed almost the same colours as the white sockets in which they were set. ibid.
I beheld the wretch – the miserable monster whom I had created. ibid.
When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned? ibid. ch13 p105
I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create. ibid. ch16 p129
I busied myself to think of a story which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature. And awaken thrilling horror. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 1994 starring Robert deNiro & Kenneth Branagh & Helena Bonham Carter & Ian Holm & Rory Jennings & Tom Hulce & John Cleese & Aidan Quinn & Richard Briers & Robert Hardy & Christina Cutall & Celia Imrie & Cherie Lunghi & Charles Wyn-Davies & Richard Bonneville et al, director Kenneth Branagh
The dawn of the nineteenth century ... Among the pioneers, Captain Robert Walton, an explorer, obsessed with reaching the north pole. As the prize drew closer his voyage would uncover a story to strike terror in the hearts of all who would venture into the unknown. ibid. caption
We can change things. We can make things better. ibid. Victor to professor
Sooner or later the best way to cheat death will be to create life. ibid. Victor to friend & professor
I abandoned my other research many years ago. Because the result is an abomination. ibid.
You’re evil. You’re the one who’s meant to die. ibid. man on scaffold to crowd
What has happened to you? How can you live like this? ibid. Elizabeth to Victor
It’s alive! It’s alive! ibid. Victor in lab
Evil stitched to evil stitched to evil. ibid. senior professor
Because I am so very ugly. And they are so very beautiful. ibid. monster to old man
You gave me these emotions. But you didn’t tell me how to use them. Now two people are dead. ibid.
What of my soul. Do I have one? ibid.
Did you ever consider the consequence of your actions? You gave me life then left me to die. Who am I? ibid.
There is something I want. A friend. Companion. A female. Someone like me. So she won’t hate me. ibid.
If you deny me my wedding night, I will be with you on yours. ibid.
I am done with man. ibid.
It is perhaps the most horrific monster ever imagined. A gruesome body sewn together from freshly dug up corpses given new life through the power of electricity. The scientist Victor Frankenstein and his terrifying monster were characters created by Mary Shelley in her famous nineteenth century novel. Yet there are real life stories that are just as macabre. Decoding the Past: The Real Dr Frankenstein
Frankenstein: one of the darkest tales ever told was born in a nightmare. From a nineteen-year-old girl whose life was full of demons came a monster who terrorised generations to come. Mary Shelley began Frankenstein in Switzerland at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Professor Robert Winston, Frankenstein: Birth of a Monster, BBC 2003
People believed that electricity and magnetism could bring the dead back to life. As a child Mary had heard of experiments to reanimate hanged convicts. ibid.
It is as if the monster is crying out for Shelley. ibid.
Frankenstein, made infamous by the classic Boris Karloff films of the 1930s, was written by a 19-year-old girl nearly 200 years ago. Frankenstein: A Modern Myth, Channel 4 2013
Mary Shelley raised larger questions about our own origins and mankind’s place in the universe. ibid.
Mary and her married lover, Percy Shelley, were a scandalous couple. ibid.
‘Every creature has a mate’. ibid. monster
There are no heroes ... in life, the monsters win. George R R Martin
Now you must prove yourself in mortal combat with a monster so terrifying, so awe-inspiring, so horrible, so soul-destroying that even I would hesitate to meet it face to face in hand to hand combat. Is that all right? Jabberwocky 1977 starring Michael Palin & Harry H Corbett & John le Mesurier & Warren Mitchell & Annette Badland & Max Wall & Deborah Fallender & Rodney Bewes & John Bird & Neil Innes & Bernard Bresslaw & Alexandra Dane & Brian Glover et al, director Terry Gilliam, King
‘You would hardly think, at first, that horrid monsters lie up there waiting to be discovered by any moderately penetrating mind-monsters to which those of the oceans bear no sort of comparison.’
‘What monsters may they be?’
‘Impersonal monsters, namely, Immensities. Until a person has thought out the stars and their inter-spaces, he has hardly learnt that there are things much more terrible than monsters of shape, namely, monsters of magnitude without known shape. Such monsters are the voids and waste places of the sky ... In these our sight plunges quite beyond any twinkler we have yet visited. Those deep wells for the human mind to let itself down into, leave alone the human body! and think of the side caverns and secondary abysses to right and left as you pass on!’ Thomas Hardy, Two on a Tower
Sightings of strange underwater monsters have been reported all over the world. Paranatural: Monsters of the Deep, National Geographic, 2013
In a remote bay of Vietnam locals say that something seriously fishy is going on. They allege that a mysterious creature known as the Tarasque has taken up residence in their waters ... A massive snake-like creature. Destination Truth s2e4, Skyfy 2008
What went swimming by us in Vietnam? ibid.
A centuries-old water monster called the Kappa that is part turtle, part demon, [and] has evolved into a beloved national obsession. Destination Truth 4e4
A monster horrendous, hideous and vast, cursed craving for gold! Virgil, Aeneid
You’re a monster. Lolita 1997 starring Dominique Swain & Jeremy Irons & Ben Silverstone & Frank Langella & Melanie Griffith & Suzanne Shepherd & Keith Rreddin & Erin J Dean & Joan Glover & Pat Pierre Perkins & Ed Grady & Michael Goodwin et al, director Adrian Lyne; viz Nabakov’s novel
In this business, until you’re known as a monster you’re not a star. Bette Davis
The monster was the best friend I ever had. Boris Karloff
Eddie discovered one of his childhood’s great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought. Stephen King, It
You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous. John Steinbeck, East of Eden
You’re a monster, you are. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966 starring Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton & George Segal & Sandy Dennis & Agnes Flanagan & Frank Flanagan, director Mike Nichols, him to her