Frankenstein: A Letter from Home

Then Clerval put a letter into my hands; it was from my dear cousin Elizabeth.“My dearest cousin,” she wrote, “you have been very ill, and even Henry’s kind letters cannot stop us from worrying about you.”“Get well, and come back to us: you will find a happy home and friends who love you dearly.”

She wrote that my father was healthy, and that my brother Ernest, now sixteen, spent all his time climbing hills and rowing on the lake.She also reminded me of Justine Moritz, a girl who had come to live with our family at the age of twelve, after her own mother treated her unkindly.“Justine is gentle and clever, and she loves our family deeply,” Elizabeth wrote. “She often reminds me of your dear mother.”

“And little William — I wish you could see him,” she went on. “He is tall for his age, with laughing blue eyes and rosy cheeks.”“Write to us, dearest Victor — one line, one word will be a blessing to us.”“Dear, dear Elizabeth!” I cried, and I wrote to her at once, though even that small effort tired me.

Two weeks later I was able to leave my room, and I took Clerval to meet my professors at the university.But ever since that terrible night, I could not bear even the name of science, and the sight of my old instruments made me tremble.When Professor Waldman kindly praised my amazing progress, every word felt like torture, yet I dared not show my pain.

Clerval saw that the subject upset me, so he changed it, and he never once tried to make me tell him my secret.Instead, I joined him in studying the languages of the East, and I found comfort in Persian and Arabic poems.Winter came and the roads were blocked with snow, so my journey home had to wait until spring.

In May, Henry and I spent two weeks walking through the countryside around Ingolstadt.The fresh air and his cheerful talk healed me, and he taught me again to love nature and the happy faces of children.When we returned to the college, I felt as happy and carefree as I had been years before, and I had no idea what news was waiting for me.