Frankenstein, Volume Three, Chapter Four

In which Victor discovers the identity of the murdered man, falls ill — again — for a couple of months, is found innocent, and is picked up by his dad.



So... is it just me, or are you all kind of rooting for bad things to happen to Victor now? Am I a bad person for feeling this, or is Victor just sort of insufferable? Maybe a little of Column A, a little of Column B? All right then.

Today's cover focuses on Victor, walking in the Alps, just as he first meets the monster whose shadow looms over his shoulder:

This 2007 edition is from Sterling Publishing's Unabridged Classics series, all of which have covers by Scott McKowen. McKowen works in a scratchboard style, which is nicely evocative of old-school woodcuts and such. He's best known for his work illustrating theatrical posters, many of which can be seen here along with much of his other work, and is also well-known in geek circles for illustrating the covers to Marvel Comics' 1602, by Neil Gaiman.

Notes after the jump!

Frankenstein, Volume One, Chapter Seven

In which Justine goes to trial for William's murder, it goes about as well as can be expected, but Victor makes sure to let us all know that his suffering is the worst of everyone; and in which the narrator is STILL not dead.



Hi-ho, everyone! Yup, still not dead, and here with another installment of Frankenstein. This is a rather short one, as we come to the end of Volume One after only a chapter, but now we start getting into the real angsty stuff. No notes this time around(!), and we're all out of illustrations, so here's our new vintage cover:

Holy hell, how great is this thing? A 1932 printing from Illustrated Editions, with cover (and interior illustrations) by Nino Carbé. Carbé later went on to be an animator at Disney and worked on films such as Fantasia, Bambi, and Pinocchio, though he primarily ended up working as a children's book illustrator. And yes, that's the face of his monster, definitely playing up the "daemon" aspect of Victor's narration. Interestingly, while this was done after the 1931 movie (and, in fact, probably published to capitalize on its popularity), Karloff's monster had not become quite iconic enough to completely overtake designs of the monster, as it later would. It is, however, probably responsible for Carbé putting electrodes in the monster's neck. Man, I wish these illustrations were in the public domain. I would've LOVED to use them here. Ah well.


If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!

Around the World in Eighty Days, Chapters Fifteen to Seventeen

In which the bag with the bank notes is relieved of a few thousand pounds more; Fix has not the appearance of knowing anything about the matters concerning which they talk to him; one thing and another is talked about during the trip from Singapore to Hong Kong; and in which the narrator is pleased that he gets to use his jowly voice, because he likes his jowly voice.



That's enough of India! on to Hong Kong! And welcome to our new major cast member, Mrs. Auoda (and yes, she's "Mrs." in the book, even though she was unwillingly wed and her husband is now dead, but WHATEVER, Nineteenth Century.)

6:15 - "'My shoes!' cried Passepartout."

12:09 - "On every occasion she showed him the liveliest gratitude."

21:15 - "Once or twice only he had a glimpse of Mr. Fogg."

24:03 - "It is charming, even in its meagerness."

Weirdly, no notes this time around. I guess it all seemed more or less straightforward. Maybe I'll take that time to make a correction: In the first installment, I gave some current values for the sums of money being discussed, to put them into context we can understand in 2014. Well, I think I calculated them the wrong way 'round. See, I used an inflation calculator to figure out what the value would be in modern British money, then used current exchange rates to figure out what that would be in US dollars. Upon reflection, it would probably be more accurate to convert the amounts to dollars using historical exchange rates, and then use inflation to bring it up to the modern day. Doing this, we see that the £55,000 stolen from the bank would actually be about $5.7 million today, and the £20,000 wager translates to about $2 million today. Slightly less than my initial estimation, but still pretty considerable sums of money.

Hmm. Actually, that math works out pretty well. Looks like any time you hear an amount in pounds in this book, multiply by 100 and you'll get a pretty close estimate of what it would be in modern dollars. That's easy.


If you would like to read along, I unfortunately can't find my translation by Stephen W. White online, but the George Towele translation can be found at Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection, which is also where I got the illustrations, or the more accurate but rather fusty Henry Frith translation at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapters Ten to Twelve

In which our heroine is entertained by the Mock Turtle, observes a trial of Dubious Legality, is called to present evidence and Hulks Out, before Awakening to her sister musing on the Nature of Childhood, and in which our narrator insists you can skip certain parts Without Offense, and breaks the fourth wall Rather Improperly.



Once again, the illustrations (specifically, the frontispiece) are specifically mentioned in the text: