Frankenstein - According to

would tighten the straps on my straitjacket. All the while there was this
twittering in my head. One day the gloom disappeared, but just in case they
kept my straitjacket on. But what the fuck had been wrong with me?
    ‘Dearest
Clerval,’ I exclaimed, ‘the whole winter,} instead of being spent studying as
you promised yourself, you have been consumed with me and you have watched me
being sick in my room. How shall I ever repay you?’
    ‘A
thousand guilders wouldn’t go amiss,’ said Clerval. ‘You will repay me
entirely, if you do not discompose yourself. May I speak to you of one subject?
Compose yourself.’
    Immediately
I knocked off a 24 bar nocturne.
    ‘I
have observed your change of colour,’ said Clerval.
    I
had gone a pale green.
     
    ‘You’re the strangest colour I’ve
    ever seen
    You’ve gone dark green’
    So said my friend Clerval who
    himself was ill in bed
    Going a bright colour red.
     
    ‘Your
father and cousin would be happy if they received a letter in your own
handwriting.’
    Immediately
I wrote the letter ‘A’ and posted it to them.
    ‘If
this is your present temper, my friend, you will perhaps be glad to see a
letter that has been lying here some days from you — to your cousin, I
believe.’

CHAPTER
VI
     
     
     
    Frankenstein
to Elizabeth:
     
    Dearest
Cousin,
    Do
not come here! The countryside abounds with wolves, bears and bandits!
     
    Elizabeth
to Frankenstein:
     
    Clerval
writes that indeed you are getting better and have stopped hiding in the
cupboard. How pleased you would be to remark the improvement of our Ernest! He
is now sixteen and full of activity and learning to yodel. He is not pleased
with the idea of a military career overseas, playing bagpipes to the Scots
Guards. In the meantime he is spending time in the open air, slapping his
thighs and yodelling.
    My
dearest aunt and cousin died. We buried them; it seemed the best thing to do.
The mortician did a job lot — he buried them all together. She, my aunt, was a
Roman Catholic and she had pieces of the true cross. Put all of the Pieces of
the true cross together and it would show that Jesus was sixty feet high and
eighty feet across. Poor girl, Justine; she wept and we were up to our ankles
in tears.
    Elizabeth
Lavenza
    Geneva,
March 18th, 17—.
     
     
    Frankenstein
to Elizabeth:
     
    Dear
Elizabeth,
    You
say one word would suffice to quiet your fears. Here it is — C O L O U R! You
can choose whatever you like — white, black, red, brown, blue, Russian blue,
yellow, ochre. Yes, the word can go a long way.
     
    One
of my first duties on my recovery was to introduce Clerval to several
professors. I introduced him to several Professor Waldman. In the absence of
the other several professors, he will do. They have taken everything out of my
laboratory — several noses, sets of false teeth, twelve legs, six vials of
blood, twelve feet of veins, some spare kidneys, and a bottle of tomato sauce,
etc. They were charging me 10 Marks a minute rent so I had to rush in, stay for
three minutes, and rush out again. It was the only way I could afford it.
    I
writhed under Professor Waldman’s words of praise but dared not exhibit the
pain I felt. Clerval curled up on the floor in front of me, his legs behind his
head, and said, ‘This puts me in a very difficult position.’ My sin in the back
of my mind was that of a monster with his trousers down.
    Mr
Krempe was quite docile — I kept him on a lead. He was given to bursts of
speech. ‘Damn the fellow,’] cried he. ‘Why Mr Clerval has outstripped us all.
He’s a youngster who but a few years ago believed in Cornelius Agrippa, the
Gem, the Hotspur and Boys’ Own .’
    Mr
Krempe now commenced to eulogise. He did it in a bush. Clerval had never
sympathised with my tastes for natural science. He came to university to master
the Oriental languages.
    The
Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit — what a waste! No one in Switzerland spoke them
and for the rest of his life he would have to talk to himself in one of these
three languages. There were only three works of the Orientalists: the Omar
Khayyam Ice Cream Factory, the King Durius Sewage Works and the Sheik Hussein
Laundry.
    Summer
passed away, having been delayed by several accidents: (1) I was run over by a
train; (2) I fell over a cliff and (3) I fell down a well. The roads were
deemed impassable with snow.
    During
the month of May I expected the letter daily which was to fix the date of my
departure. As I was