Overall: Roadtrip!
So we’re kinda getting on toward the end of the book… I mean, I know that somehow Vic ends up chasing Adam around in the Arctic circle, so that’s still got to happen. We’re moving north! So that may be leading up to it. I don’t know, the book seems like it doesn’t quite know what to do with itself right now.
Look, I’m not opposed to narrative divergences. I think a lot of the point of Frankenstein might be about the sort of observations and attitudes regarding nature that the various characters make and hold. However, the book seems to sometimes maybe overdo this some? Like the plot doesn’t necessarily lend itself to that sort of novel, I suppose.
Most of this chapter is really a travelogue, “Vic and Clerval take the British Isles”. The two start in London and proceed to visit various places on the island, heading northward toward Scotland. Vic apparently sends off some letters of introduction to the philosophers he wanted to meet, but he never seems to follow up on them. Also, we find out that Clerval is interested in signing on to help with the colonization of India.
It’s also a chapter consisting of Shelley kind of comparing the English hills with the Alps. Which, while Cherval seems to love all of the caves and ethereality of the English hills, Vic is more a fan of the raw majesty of the Swiss Alps. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I do like how consistent Shelley is with the preferences of her characters.
Eventually the two make their way up to Edinburgh, where Vic leaves Clerval so he can go complete his task. He takes up residence in a hut on a small island and begins to set to work, not hearing from the monster and taking walks on the beach at night… where’s he getting the parts for this now?
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