Here we go, we're picking up steam again! I mean, still plenty of angst and misery, but we're back to the murdery and mad sciencey place again. Yay!
Today's cover goes full-on Karloff:
This doesn't even really pretend to take its imagery from anything other than the movie. There's even a castle! This 1976 edition published by Pocket Books had this here cover done by Mara McAfee (1929-1984). McAfee started out as a minor-league actor in the 1950s before going on to a very well-respected career as an artist and illustrator who did do some literary illustrations like this, but was best known for satirical illustrations for publications like National Lampoon, which often featured her work on the cover. A small selection of her work (including a closer look at this cover) can be viewed here.
Thankfully brief notes after the jump!
After last installment's literary adventures, we've only got two quick notes this time around:
30:29 - Victor whines about the winds that feel like a "dull, ugly siroc" come to consume him. This is short for sirocco, a hot, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara Desert across the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. When this hits cooler, wetter air over the sea, it creates winds that can reach hurricane speeds that often carry very abrasive dust and sand. Fun!
31:21 - Victor says that his promise weighs upon his mind like "Dante's iron cowl on the heads of the hellish hypocrites." This is, of course, a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy, specifically from Canto XXIII of The Inferno. Here, Dante and his guide Virgil wander through the eighth circle of Hell (the next-to-lowest circle) where those guilty of Fraud are kept. After they pass through ditches containing panderers, seducers, flatterers, crooked priests, sorcerers, false prophets, astrologers, and crooked politicians, they come to the ditch with the hypocrites. The lucky folks located here wear beautiful golden cloaks that are lined with lead weighing them down. They meet a few people here, including one of many popes they meet across the various circles, but most prominently they meet Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest who ordered Jesus' death. No fooling with cloaks for him; he gets staked to the ground where everyone has to walk on him. Even more fun!
That's all for today! Next time, we'll see if Victor makes the monster his bride and the two go off together where they'll never bother or be bother by anyone ever again and everyone lives happily ever after. (Spoilers: No.)
If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!
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