When he was well enough to walk, the first place he came after seeing his wife’s grave was right here. He had to stoop low and sideways to get through the door, and then couldn’t straighten up when he got inside. I was so shocked, with him being so tall and having such a dreadful face, that I blurted out, “It’s such a start you gave me, your being so ugly, sir. It’s you, isn’t it? The Black Angel. I swear, you look like you’ve been in a hundred explosions before this one, I mean, like bits of a hundred miners come together in you.” My face was red with shame but my mouth still wouldn’t stop. “I swear, I pity anyone who runs up against you in a dark alley.” At last I had the sense to keep still.
He pretended as if he hadn’t heard a word, or maybe he really didn’t, with explosions still ringing in his ears. He said he was Victor Hartmann, and that he’d come to see the boy and maybe to bring him over to Darby’s to show him round, as it was a warm and sunny day.
“What have you called him?” I asked, for I’ve been nursing the lad the whole while without knowing his name.
The man smiled, which in itself was something to see as it pulled his scars every which way. The smile was so sad it made me teary.
“She used to call him ‘worm’ so often I’m of a mind to call him that myself,” he said.
I nodded. “It was that way with my last. I called him ‘lump.’ He was near three months old before I began to call him Kevin. And yours—he looks like a wiggly white worm, doesn’t he, sir? Well, I’ll fatten him up soon enough, that is, if you’re going to leave him with me.”
“Leave him?” he asked. “If I leave him, he will end up in the mines, won’t he?”
“I think he should be weaned first, no? And grow a tooth or two?” I tried to make a joke, he was frowning so much.
“Of course,” he said. “You mean, leave him with you for now.”
“Yes, just for now. Later you’ll be wanting to take him back home to your family.”
“I have no family.”
“Your wife’s then,” I said quickly, for he still looked so sad. “Surely there’s someone who’ll be glad at the sight of him. What of your wife’s parents?”
“I don’t know. I would want her father to be glad to see the boy, but after all that has happened … He doesn’t know that Lily is dead.” He was talking more to himself, not me, as if I’d left the room. His big hand touched a straw bracelet around his wrist, which sat right next to another of little bells. It seemed to comfort him and to help him think. “I should try, though, shouldn’t I?” he asked. “To bring the boy home? I should at least try.”
“Yes,” I said quickly, as he was about to go melancholy on me again. I could see he was the type to brood and would like as not see a sunny day as only what happens in between the rain. “No one can resist a fat new baby,” I said, giving him the boy. “And he will be fat by the time you leave, I promise you.”
When I said that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a hair barrette with jewels in it as big as summer peas. “They are real,” he assured me. “Are they enough for payment?”
“Why, to be fair, if I pried out one and gave you back the rest, I’d still be paid a thousand times over. Even so, you shouldn’t talk about payment,” I said. “For what you’ve done, I guess I can spare a bit of milk.”
“Take it anyway,” he said, pressing it into my hands. “Along with my thanks. I suppose you will see me often, now that I am well enough to visit the boy, though I’m not sure where I’ll be staying. I think I’ve imposed on Darby too long.”
I laughed at him and said there were at least seventeen families that would take him in that minute if they knew he was wanting a roof.
“Then you think I might be welcome in this town?” he asked.
“Aye, more than welcome. We’re grateful to have you.”
He looked down at the boy for a long time, then said something very peculiar:
A fairer Paradise is founded now
for Adam and his chosen sons.
The rector just told me this is poetry by Milton. I am a great respecter of words, having none, and said I would give Wally Milton an extra cake for his. And now the rector is laughing at me as he writes this and says no, he doesn’t mean Wally.
Anyway, after the giant said his bit of poetry, he lifted his enormous hand like he was going to touch the little boy under the chin, but he stopped and didn’t do it. The baby grabbed his finger, or tried to grab it since it was so big—and oh, the look on him then! Like he didn’t know grabbing fingers is what babies do. Like he was the first father in all the world and this was the first baby.
He was making me teary again, so I shooed him out, saying, “Be off with you. Black Angel or not, you’re just a man and like any man you’re underfoot. Let me get back to my work.”
“What did you say?” he asked.
“I said I must get back to my work.”
“No, your words before that.”
“I said you’re just a man, and like any man you’re underfoot.”
I cannot describe the expression that came over his face, so fast did it change from one feeling to another. Then he suddenly held the baby close, as if something dreadful would snatch it away, and he left to go to Darby’s.
I must end here, for the rector has just interrupted to say this is the fifth time I’ve used dreadful and do I want to go back and strike some out or leave my words as they are. I say leave them, but I’ll not repeat myself again, nor go on to a new sheet of paper, so I will end here with my love to you and your new husband. Do write back and tell me when we may expect a visit, but remember, it is the rector who will be reading your words, so do me no mischief when you put your thoughts on paper.
Your cousin,
Anne
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’M ENORMOUSLY GRATEFUL to the many people who helped me birth the Monster, including—
My tireless agent, Steven Chudney, who on the inhale can extol the wonders of a new manuscript and on the exhale say, “Now cut 20 percent, rewrite the rest, and then let me see it—and where is that other book I’m waiting for?”
My editor, Heather Lazare, whose insights into the characters and suggestions for the story gave the novel a much deeper and truer emotional heart.
Fellow writers Susan Taylor Brown, Laura Salas, Bonny Becker, and David Caruba, who kept me sane throughout.
Friends and family members, who have always generously given me their help.
Readers, past, present, and future, who patiently allow this author to tell tales.
And my husband, Michael, who has supported and encouraged and loved me as a writer, from the very first line of my very first picture book, through the books that followed, to Frankenstein’s Monster. Despite new stories already littering the house and possessing my mind, he loves me still—and, for that, mere gratitude is a pale, pale word.
Works by other authors are quoted throughout the book. Some quotations are unattributed to maintain the flow of the scene. Some have been changed to better express Victor’s emotions at that moment. For questions regarding these or anything else—or to just stop by for company—please visit my website: www.susanheyboerokeefe.com.
Frankenstein’s
MONSTER
READER’S GUIDE
1. Each of the main characters in Frankenstein’s Monster, especially Victor, makes a journey. Their physical journeys are clear. What are the emotional and psychological journeys for Victor? Lily? Robert Walton? Gregory Winterbourne? Who reaches their “destination” and who doesn’t? Whether yes or no, why? Which of the other characters makes his or her own journey?
2. Victor’s journal is bookended by a captain’s log and a letter. What are the differences between the log and the letter? The similarities? Which differences and similarities seem to be a true impression of Victor and why? How do the differences and similarities reflect the character of Walton and of Anne Todd?
3. Victor’s overall movement in the book is his attempt to chang
e from monster to man. Is he truly a monster at the beginning? Truly a man at the end? If he is not a man at the end, why? What else must he do to find his humanity? If yes, at what point does he stop being a monster, and why? What made or will make him human?
4. Frankenstein’s Monster begins ten years after Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. What do you think happened during those ten years for Victor? For Walton?
5. Over the course of the book, Victor is bound to two women: Mirabella and Lily. Which did he have stronger ties to? Which one would have proved better for him in the long term? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of each relationship? Would either relationship last? Who would be the one to leave, and why?
6. Victor quotes from essays, poems, and scripture to describe or emphasize his feelings at certain points throughout the book. What does reading mean to him? What does reading mean to you? What would a life without books be for Victor? For you? Which was your favorite quotation in the book, and why?
7. A key scene in the novel is Victor and Lily’s overnight stay at the cottage. Lily leads Victor on, then spurns him in the worst imaginable way. How did you interpret and feel about Lily’s behavior when you read the scene? How do you see it now? In the same scene, after she so brutally rejects him, Victor runs into the woods and commits an act of bestiality. Did it offend you? Did it make you feel more sympathy toward Victor or less?
8. At the beginning of the novel, the monster is nameless. About a quarter of the way through, he takes his father’s first name, and then Lily gives him his surname. What is each name’s significance? Does either one’s significance change over time?
9. There are many references to God and religion throughout the book. How are they used? How are they depicted by the characters? Which reflect and/or influence Victor and in what ways? Did you believe them to be fair and accurate both in their depiction and in Victor’s perception of them?
10. Four different settings and groups of people encounter Victor: beggars, “civilized society,” the clergy and religious, and coal miners. If each group had accepted him, which would he have felt most comfortable with? Least comfortable with? If there was an ideal group or setting for Victor, who and what would it be? If he existed today, how would he be perceived? What are the possible kinds of acceptance and rejection he might face?
11. How would you have reacted to Victor? How would your reaction to him differ if you were a member of each of the above groups? If you had the opportunity to know him over time, how would that initial reaction stay with and influence you? Would you ever be able to see beyond the nature of his creation? His physical ugliness? The ugliness of his past behavior? Which would be the most difficult to accept?
12. The author has said that, while the idea was not used as a theme, today’s scientific work in cloning, genetic manipulation, the use of animals in the treatment of humans, and so on, might be discussed in light of Frankenstein’s Monster. How? Do you agree with Victor that the creator must take responsibility for what the creation does? Does this responsibility extend to humanity as a whole? To God? Can and should a creation become independent of its creator? If yes, what are the consequences? If no, why not?
13. Frankenstein’s Monster is shaped in many ways by the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast.” How do you see that evidenced in the book? Where does it depart from the fairy tale? What other fairy tales, myths, archetypes, and so on, do you see in the novel? How did they shape your understanding of the book?
14. Victor displays varying degrees of violent behavior many times. Which were the most shocking to you? Why? How did these incidents influence your perceptions of him? Were any of them physically necessary? Emotionally justified? Is violence ever justified?
15. In the coal mine, Walton makes a startling revelation that changes how Victor has perceived all that came before it. Was the revelation a total surprise or did you see hints of it throughout? How did it change your perception of Margaret, of Walton, and especially of Lily? What did you think of Victor’s reaction to the revelation?
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