Frankenstein

Letter 3

To Mrs. Sav­ille, Eng­land.

July 7th, 17—.

My dear Sister,

I write a few lines in haste to say that I am safe—and well advanced on my voy­age. This let­ter will reach Eng­land by a mer­chant­man now on its home­ward voy­age from Archangel; more for­tu­nate than I, who may not see my native land, per­haps, for many years. I am, how­ev­er, in good spir­its: my men are bold and appar­ent­ly firm of pur­pose, nor do the float­ing sheets of ice that con­tin­u­al­ly pass us, indi­cat­ing the dan­gers of the region towards which we are advanc­ing, appear to dis­may them. We have already reached a very high lat­i­tude; but it is the height of sum­mer, and although not so warm as in Eng­land, the south­ern gales, which blow us speed­i­ly towards those shores which I so ardent­ly desire to attain, breathe a degree of ren­o­vat­ing warmth which I had not expected.

No inci­dents have hith­er­to befall­en us that would make a fig­ure in a let­ter. One or two stiff gales and the spring­ing of a leak are acci­dents which expe­ri­enced nav­i­ga­tors scarce­ly remem­ber to record, and I shall be well con­tent if noth­ing worse hap­pen to us dur­ing our voyage.

Adieu, my dear Mar­garet. Be assured that for my own sake, as well as yours, I will not rash­ly encounter dan­ger. I will be cool, per­se­ver­ing, and pru­dent.

But suc­cess shall crown my endeav­ours. Where­fore not? Thus far I have gone, trac­ing a secure way over the path­less seas, the very stars them­selves being wit­ness­es and tes­ti­monies of my tri­umph. Why not still pro­ceed over the untamed yet obe­di­ent ele­ment? What can stop the deter­mined heart and resolved will of man?

My swelling heart invol­un­tar­i­ly pours itself out thus. But I must fin­ish. Heav­en bless my beloved sister!

R.W.

in haste ⇒ In a hur­ried or hasty manner.

home­ward həʊmwəd adj Direct­ed or going home.

Arkhangel­sk, also known as Archangel and Archangel­sk ⇒ A city in Rus­sia, the chief sea­port of medieval and ear­ly mod­ern Rus­sia until 1703, when it was replaced by the new­ly found­ed Saint Petersburg.

dis­may dɪsˈmeɪ v To break down the courage of com­plete­ly, as by sud­den dan­ger or trou­ble: alarm, fright­en, scare, pan­ic, dis­tress, ter­ri­fy, appal

lat­i­tude ˈlætɪtjuːd n The angu­lar dis­tance, mea­sured north or south from the equa­tor, of a point on the earth’s sur­face, expressed in degrees.

gale ɡeɪl n A strong wind, specif­i­cal­ly one of force sev­en to ten on the Beau­fort scale or from 45 to 90 kilo­me­tres per hour.

ardent­ly ˈɑːdəntli adj In an enthu­si­as­tic and pas­sion­ate manner.

ren­o­vate ˈrɛnəveɪt v Give new life or ener­gy to: recre­ate, rehabilitate

hith­er­to ˈhɪðəˈ­tuː adv Until now; before this time

befall bɪˈfɔːl pp befell, pt befall­en n Occur or be the case in the course of events or by chance: hap­pen

leak liːk n The dis­charge of a flu­id from some con­tain­er: leak­age, out­flow, escape

scarce­ly ˈskeəs­li adv Not quite, almost not: bare­ly, hardly

adieu əˈd­juː int Said to wish a final farewell: good­bye, farewell,au revoir

for one’s own sake ⇒ For one’s good or ben­e­fit; in hon­or of someone.

as well as ⇒ Equal­ly well; to the same standard.

rash­ly ˈræʃli adj With­out care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion of the pos­si­ble con­se­quences: impetu­ous­ly

per­se­ver­ing ˌpɜːsɪˈvɪərɪŋ adj Qui­et­ly and steadi­ly per­sist­ing in or remain con­stant to a pur­pose, idea, or task in the face of obsta­cles or dis­cour­age­ment: dili­gent

pru­dent ˈpruːdᵊnt adj Care­ful or wise in han­dling prac­ti­cal mat­ters; exer­cis­ing good judg­ment or com­mon sense: wise, ratio­nal, rea­son­able, saga­cious, sage, sane, well-founded

endeav­our ɪnˈdɛvə n An effort to do or attain some­thing: attempt, try, effort, tri­al, aim, under­tak­ing, essay

where­fore ˈweəfɔː adv (Archa­ic) For what? Why?

thus far ⇒ Up to the cur­rent point or moment in time.

untamed ˌʌnˈteɪmd adj Not cul­ti­vat­ed, domes­ti­cat­ed, or con­trolled: wild, fierce, sav­age, uncon­trol­lable, undomesticated,

obe­di­ent əˈbiːdiənt adj Com­ply­ing with or sub­mis­sive to author­i­ty: sub­mis­sive, yield­ing, com­pli­ant, docile, meek

swell swɛl v To increase in amount, degree, force, etc: increase, rise, grow, expand

;/div>