“His stature… seemed to exceed that of man… I perceived, as the shape came nearer (sight tremendous and abhorred!) that it was the wretch whom I had created.”
Frankenstein, seeking solace and solitude, retires to Chamonix and on to the remote Mer de glace, the Sea of Ice where, sight tremendous and abhorred, the thing he created appears and confronts him. The scene, with The Monster standing a full eight-feet tall as described in the novel, inspired the cover to this 1882 British edition, No. 159 of Routledge and Sons’ Sixpenny Series.
London bookseller George Routledge (1812-1888) began publishing in 1836, eventually founding the company that bears his name in 1851, the year Mary Shelley died. The imprint still operates today as a division of the Swiss publisher Informa.
A rare copy of this edition, from the Jerry Weist collection, is currently on offer through Heritage Auctions.
Related:
Mer de glace
3 comments:
I really like this cover art! The creature is so big! Sometimes, I forget that he is supposed to be huge in comparison to ordinary men.
Very cool!
Agreed that it's a cool shot of a cool moment in the book...
And agreed, Emmy, that The Monster has his proper stature...
But it's a annoying that, as with other early representations, he's not nearly as grotesque looking as Mother Mary describes him!
-Craig
That is probably the prettiest version of the Monster I've ever seen.
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