Mary Shelley Page #8

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[street chatter]

[audience talking]

[doorbell rings]

Gentlemen, welcome. Thank

you for coming.

We're here to celebrate the success of

'Frankenstein; Or The Modern Prometheus'.

It's a remarkable story

asserting, as it does, the...

absolute human necessity

for connection.

From the moment Doctor Frankenstein's

creature opens its eyes

it seeks the touch of its creator.

But he recoils in terror

leaving the creature to its first

of many experiences of neglect

and isolation.

And if only Frankenstein had been

able to bestow upon his creation

a compassionate touch.

A kind word.

What a tragedy might have

been avoided.

But it is a credit to the writer

that it is these very thoughts

that continue to run through

our minds long after we've

turned the final page

of this book

which I know you all agree is

one of the most complete and

certainly one of the most

original publications of our age.

As...

[crowd applauding]

Thank you.

Thank you.

I know many of you wonder who could

have written this horrific tale

and why was it

published anonymously.

I see some of you suggest

that the work belongs to me.

Indeed, you could say that the work would

not even exist without my contribution.

But to my shame

the only claim I remotely

have to this work

is inspiring the desperate loneliness

that defines Frankenstein's creature.

The author of 'Frankenstein; Or A

Modern Prometheus' is, of course

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.

[crowd murmurs]

[soft, dramatic music ]

It is a work of singular genius and she

is indebted to no one in its creation.

Percy.

Mary.

I really thought you'd left

for good.

I never promised you a life

without misery

but I underestimated the

depths of despair

and the weight of regret we

were to endure.

I lost everything to be with

you, Percy.

Always set out to create

something wonderful

something beautiful.

But something volatile

seethed within us.

Behold...

the monster galvanized

but if I had not learned to

fight through the anguish

I would not have found this

voice again.

My choices made me who I am.

And I regret nothing.

[music swells ]

[Mary, voiceover] You were

soon borne away by the waves

and lost in darkness

and distance.

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