Frankenstein 是西方文学史上（其实我也不知道为什么要强调西方，但是网上的介绍是这么说的）第一部科幻小说，作者是英国的 Mary Shelley (1797-1851)，她就是著名的 If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind 的作者 停顿 Percy Bysshe Shelley 的妻子(Wikipedia, 2017a) 。前天晚上去紫荆书咖开始看，昨天在路上看了一路终于在快到包头站的时候把它看完了。

这里要特别安利的是辽宁人民出版社的 A Bedside Classic 系列，这个系列包括了欧美从但丁以来的各种经典名著，而且从排版到纸张都和原版图书没什么区别，都是那种特别轻特别便携的那种。考试周无聊去逛中关村图书大厦的时候买了 Frankenstein 和帕斯卡的沉思录（虽然原著应该是法语写的？）。

Anyway, 接下来就是随便摘抄一点我觉得写的很好的地方了。

I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but, swlling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys.

(Chapter 1, Volume 1)

“The ancient teachers of this science, “ said he, “promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pour over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and shew how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunder of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadow.”

(Chapter 2, Volume 1)

It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage.

(Chapter 3, Volume 1)

But is it not a duty to the survivors, that we should refrain from augmenting their unhappiness by an appearance of immoderate grief? It is also a duty owed to yourself; for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness, without which no man is fit for society.

(Chapter 1, Volume 2)

If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows, and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us. We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep. We rise; one wandering thought pollutes the day. We feel; conceive, or reason; laugh, or weep, Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away; It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow, the path of its departure still is free. Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but mutability!

(Chapter 2, Volume 2)

The past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope, and anticipations of joy.

(Chapter 4, Volume 2)

What do you mean? What do you demand of your captain? Are you then so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? and wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror; because, at every new incident, your fortitude was to be called forth, and you courage exhibited; because danger and death surrounded, and these dangers you were to brave and overcome. For this was it a glorious, For this was it a glorious undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors of your species; your name adored, as belonging to brave men who encountered death for honor and the benefit of mankind. And now, behold, with the first imagination of danger, or ,if you will the first mighty and terrific trail of your courage, you shrink away, and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly, and returned to their warm fire-sides. Why, that requires not this preparation; ye need not have come thus far, merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh! be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes, and firm as a rock. The ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts might be; it is mutable, cannot withstand you, if you say it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered, and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.

(Chapter 7, Volume 3)

果然文人的鸡血能力不能小瞧！感觉那个 not because…but because… 和肯尼迪总统的 “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard” (Wikipedia, 2017b) 颇有异曲同工之妙啊，不知道肯尼迪当时有没有看过 Frankenstein～