Frankenstein: The Creature's First Days

I can hardly remember the first days of my life; everything from that time seems confused and unclear.I saw, felt, heard and smelled all at once, and it was a long time before I learned to tell my senses apart.The light hurt my eyes, so I left your rooms and found shade in the forest near Ingolstadt, where I ate berries and drank from a stream.

When I woke it was dark and cold, and feeling pain on every side, I sat down and wept.Then a gentle light rose from among the trees — the moon — and I stared at it with wonder.Under a tree I found a large cloak, so I wrapped myself in it and sat on the ground.

Slowly my senses grew clear: I learned that the sweet songs came from the throats of little birds, and I tried to copy them, but the ugly sounds I made frightened me into silence.One cold day I found a fire left by some wandering beggars, and in my joy I pushed my hand into the hot embers — then pulled it out with a cry of pain.How strange, I thought, that the same thing could give both comfort and pain!I learned to keep the fire alive with dry wood, and I found that nuts and roots tasted much better when they were cooked.

But food grew scarce, so I left the forest, and after three days I came to open fields covered with snow.I entered a small hut where an old shepherd sat cooking his breakfast, but when he saw me he screamed and ran away across the fields.I ate the rest of his bread and cheese, and then, tired out, I fell asleep on some straw.

At sunset I reached a village, but as soon as I stepped into a house the children screamed and a woman fainted.The whole village woke up; some people ran away and others threw stones at me, until, badly bruised, I escaped into the countryside.There I hid in a low wooden shed built against the back of a neat little cottage; it was so low I could hardly sit up, but it was dry.

Through a small crack in the wall I could see into the cottage: a young man, a gentle girl, and a white-haired old man sitting by the fire.The old man took up an instrument and played music sweeter than any bird, and when the girl began to cry, he smiled at her with such kindness that I felt a strange mixture of pain and pleasure.I had to turn away from the window, for I could not bear such feelings; and at night, when the family put out their lights, I lay down in my shed, happy to have found a shelter.