Cantitate/Preț
Produs
Total produse
Vezi coșul
Frankenstein de Mary Shelley

Frankenstein

Autor Mary Shelley
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 15 iul 2011
The Original Gothic-Horror Literary Classic

Mary Shelley's deceptively simple story of Victor Frankenstein and the creature he brings to life, first published in 1818, is now more widely read-and more widely discussed by scholars-than any other work of the Romantic period. From the creature's creation to his wild lament over the dead body of his creator in the Arctic wastes, the story retains its narrative hold on the reader even as it spins off ideas in rich profusion.

About the Author:

Mary Shelley (30 August 1797 - 1 February 1851) was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. She died in London in 1851.

"This is the definitive collectors edition and is a stunning and impressive uanabridged representation of a classic literary work."

- Publisher's Weekly

Citește tot Restrânge

Toate formatele și edițiile

Toate formatele și edițiile Preț Express
Paperback (98) 3275 lei  22-36 zile +828 lei  5-11 zile
  Alma Books COMMIS – 15 ian 2014 3275 lei  22-36 zile +828 lei  5-11 zile
  Rupa Publication – 13 apr 2019 3834 lei  22-36 zile +617 lei  5-11 zile
  Signet Classics – 30 sep 2013 3848 lei  22-36 zile +725 lei  5-11 zile
  Pan Macmillan – 5 sep 2024 4208 lei  22-36 zile +2676 lei  5-11 zile
  Penguin Books – 25 apr 2012 4314 lei  25-31 zile +1652 lei  5-11 zile
  Vintage Publishing – 29 mai 2019 4323 lei  25-31 zile +1664 lei  5-11 zile
  Orion Publishing Group – 10 oct 2012 4374 lei  22-36 zile +2228 lei  5-11 zile
  Penguin Books – 29 ian 2003 4422 lei  25-31 zile +1812 lei  5-11 zile
  SCHOLASTIC LTD – iul 2014 4475 lei  22-36 zile +745 lei  5-11 zile
  – 4603 lei  22-36 zile
  Aladdin – 26 sep 2024 4773 lei  26-38 zile +2266 lei  5-11 zile
  Usborne Publishing – dec 2018 4793 lei  22-36 zile +664 lei  5-11 zile
  Penguin Random House Children's UK – 27 iun 2018 4881 lei  25-31 zile +1901 lei  5-11 zile
  Stone Arch Books – 30 iun 2014 4887 lei  22-36 zile
  Simon&Schuster – 30 apr 2004 4943 lei  22-36 zile
  – 4957 lei  22-36 zile
  BONNIER BOOKS LTD – 12 sep 2024 5056 lei  22-36 zile +642 lei  5-11 zile
  HarperCollins Publishers – 7 apr 2016 5072 lei  22-36 zile +699 lei  5-11 zile
  Oxford University Press, USA – 4 noi 2024 5189 lei  22-36 zile
  Penguin Random House Group – 27 iul 2010 5252 lei  25-31 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 5368 lei  22-36 zile
  UNION SQUARE & CO – 6 mai 2022 5381 lei  22-36 zile +1536 lei  5-11 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 5548 lei  22-36 zile
  CALIBER COMICS – 2 ian 2018 5668 lei  22-36 zile
  HarperCollins Publishers – 22 iul 2021 5719 lei  22-36 zile +832 lei  5-11 zile
  HarperCollins Publishers – 3 sep 2018 5762 lei  22-36 zile
  West Margin Press – iul 2020 6055 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 6193 lei  22-36 zile
  – 6250 lei  22-36 zile
  CREATESPACE – 6376 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 6453 lei  22-36 zile
  BANDANNA BOOKS – 31 aug 2011 6473 lei  22-36 zile
  – 6519 lei  22-36 zile
  Capstone Global Library Ltd – iul 2009 6559 lei  22-36 zile +748 lei  5-11 zile
  – 6610 lei  22-36 zile
  – 6713 lei  22-36 zile
  – 6713 lei  22-36 zile
  – 6713 lei  22-36 zile
  – 6713 lei  22-36 zile
  Klett Sprachen GmbH – 15 mar 2018 6798 lei  17-23 zile +631 lei  5-11 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 6847 lei  22-36 zile
  – 6997 lei  22-36 zile
  – 7262 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 7265 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 7280 lei  22-36 zile
  Warbler Classics – 25 dec 2019 7353 lei  22-36 zile
  – 7380 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 7470 lei  22-36 zile
  University of British Columbia Press – iul 2016 7719 lei  22-36 zile
  – 7847 lei  22-36 zile
  – 8005 lei  22-36 zile
  Diesterweg Moritz – dec 2012 8039 lei  17-23 zile +745 lei  5-11 zile
  CANTERBURY CLASSICS – 22 sep 2013 8228 lei  22-36 zile +1164 lei  5-11 zile
  Cambridge University Press – 6 mai 1998 8274 lei  22-36 zile +1307 lei  5-11 zile
  Denton & White – 8779 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 8843 lei  22-36 zile
  Matsumoto/Wilkins – 30 oct 2020 8877 lei  22-36 zile
  – 8938 lei  22-36 zile
  – 9044 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 9059 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 9196 lei  22-36 zile
  – 9242 lei  22-36 zile
  Currency Press – 10 mai 2023 9569 lei  22-36 zile
  – 9725 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 9910 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 9976 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 9982 lei  22-36 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 10184 lei  22-36 zile
  – 13062 lei  22-36 zile
  Mint Editions – 30 aug 2022 15769 lei  22-36 zile
  – 21602 lei  22-36 zile
  – 29306 lei  22-36 zile
  Sde Classics – 23 oct 2018 6405 lei  43-57 zile
  Tribeca Books – 30 iun 2011 6515 lei  43-57 zile
  – 7205 lei  43-57 zile
  – 7351 lei  43-57 zile
  – 7438 lei  43-57 zile
  LIGHTNING SOURCE INC – 29 sep 2018 7896 lei  17-23 zile
  Independent Publishing – 19 aug 2013 7977 lei  43-57 zile
  – 8258 lei  43-57 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 8432 lei  43-57 zile
  1809 House – 29 iun 2018 8668 lei  38-44 zile
  – 8732 lei  43-57 zile
  Gröls Verlag – 5 ian 2023 8924 lei  38-44 zile
  Lulu.Com – 20 iun 2017 9125 lei  43-57 zile
  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 9283 lei  43-57 zile
  Stonewell Press – 19 oct 2013 9555 lei  43-57 zile
  Broadway Play Publishing – 9715 lei  43-57 zile
  Lulu.Com – 11 mar 2018 10033 lei  43-57 zile
  Blurb – oct 2019 10296 lei  43-57 zile
  Delhi Open Books – 12 iun 2020 10572 lei  43-57 zile
  Firestone Books – 12 mai 2016 10644 lei  43-57 zile
  EduGorilla Community Pvt. Ltd. – 6 iun 2022 10710 lei  43-57 zile
  Ithink Books – 11 dec 2020 12548 lei  38-44 zile
  Simon & Brown – 15 iul 2011 13098 lei  38-44 zile
  Fantastica – 21 iun 2012 13647 lei  38-44 zile
  Nithercott Publications – 22 ian 2017 13734 lei  38-44 zile
  Simon & Brown – 31 oct 2011 14192 lei  38-44 zile
Hardback (24) 4647 lei  22-36 zile +2988 lei  5-11 zile
  Pan Macmillan – 6 feb 2017 4647 lei  22-36 zile +2988 lei  5-11 zile
  Quarto Publishing Group USA, Inc. – 4 apr 2022 4666 lei  22-36 zile +2239 lei  5-11 zile
  WORDSWORTH EDITIONS LTD – oct 2022 4820 lei  22-36 zile +1024 lei  5-11 zile
  Baker Street Press – 31 mai 2018 5112 lei  22-36 zile +848 lei  5-11 zile
  Classics Illustrated Comics – 23 dec 2015 6435 lei  22-36 zile +1214 lei  5-11 zile
  Penguin Young Readers Group – 25 aug 2020 6615 lei  22-36 zile +1869 lei  5-11 zile
  Arcturus Publishing – noi 2022 7145 lei  22-36 zile
  Penguin Random House Children's UK – 2 sep 2020 8062 lei  25-31 zile +3007 lei  5-11 zile
  Wiley – 20 noi 2024 8068 lei  22-36 zile +1833 lei  5-11 zile
  UNION SQUARE & CO – feb 2023 8773 lei  22-36 zile +2265 lei  5-11 zile
  Dover Publications Inc. – 29 aug 2024 9026 lei  22-29 zile +3256 lei  5-11 zile
  Penguin Books – 2 oct 2013 9254 lei  25-31 zile +3599 lei  5-11 zile
  EVERYMAN – 19 mar 1992 9610 lei  22-36 zile +1654 lei  5-11 zile
  UNION SQUARE & CO – 29 oct 2024 10060 lei  22-36 zile +1882 lei  5-11 zile
  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS – 10 sep 2024 10177 lei  22-36 zile
  Penguin Books – 2 oct 2013 11738 lei  25-31 zile +4310 lei  5-11 zile
  Arcturus Publishing – 30 sep 2024 13364 lei  22-36 zile +4217 lei  5-11 zile
  chiltern publishing – oct 2019 13481 lei  22-36 zile
  Arcturus Publishing – 19 noi 2024 15247 lei  22-36 zile
  Hackett Publishing Company – 25 oct 2020 35809 lei  22-36 zile
  Ithink Books – 11 dec 2020 18057 lei  38-44 zile
  – 18148 lei  38-44 zile
  Lulu.Com – 20 iun 2017 18369 lei  43-57 zile
  – 19949 lei  38-44 zile

Preț: 13098 lei

Nou

Puncte Express: 196
Preț estimativ în valută:
2507€ • 2604$ • 2082£

Carte tipărită la comandă

Livrare economică 29 ianuarie-04 februarie 25

 Adaugă în coș

Wish list
Gift list
Am citit!
Adaugă în listă
Preluare comenzi: 021 569.72.76

Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781613820636
ISBN-10: 1613820631
Pagini: 208
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 12 mm
Greutate: 0.31 kg
Editura: Simon & Brown
Colecția Simon & Brown

Notă biografică

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 - 1851) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

Recenzii

The greatest novel of the Romantic movement.
Frankenstein appeals to something very primal, but it's also about profound things, the very nature of life and death and birth.
How many fictional characters have made the great leap from literature to mythology; how many creatures of sheer language have stepped from the rhythms of their author's idiosyncratic voices into what might be called a collective cultural consciousness?
The greatest novel of the Romantic movement.

Descriere

Descriere de la o altă ediție sau format:

Part of Alma Classics Evergreens series, this new edition of Frankenstein contains pictures and an extensive section on Shelley's life and works. Since it was first published in 1818, Mary Shelley's seminal novel has generated countless print, stage and screen adaptations, but none has ever matched the power and philosophical resonance of the original. Composed as part of a challenge with Byron and Shelley to conjure up the most terrifying ghost story, Frankenstein narrates the chilling tale of a being created by a bright young scientist and the catastrophic consequences that ensue. Considered by many to be the first science-fiction novel, the tragic tale of Victor Frankenstein and the tortured creation he rejects is a classic fable about the pursuit of knowledge, the nature of beauty and the monstrosity inherent to man.

If you enjoyed Frankenstein, you might like reading Transformation, a chilling gothic tale available in Alma Classics 101 Pages series.

ABOUT THE SERIES: Alma Evergreens is a series of popular classics. All the titles in the series are provided with an extensive critical apparatus, extra reading material including a section of photographs and notes. The texts are based on the most authoritative edition (or collated from the most authoritative editions or manuscripts) and edited using a fresh, intelligent editorial approach. With an emphasis on the production, editorial and typographical values of a book, Alma Classics aspires to revitalize the whole experience of reading the classics.

Extras

Frankenstein; Or, The Modern PrometheusCHAPTER I


I am by birth a Genevese; and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic. My ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics; and my father had filled several public situations with honour and reputation. He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business. He passed his younger days perpetually occupied by the affairs of his country; and it was not until the decline of life that he thought of marrying, and bestowing on the state sons who might carry his virtues and his name down to posterity.

As the circumstances of his marriage illustrate his character, I cannot refrain from relating them. One of his most intimate friends was a merchant, who, from a flourishing state, fell, through numerous mischances, into poverty. This man, whose name was Beaufort, was of a proud and unbending disposition, and could not bear to live in poverty and oblivion in the same country where he had formerly been distinguished for his rank and magnificence. Having paid his debts, therefore, in the most honourable manner, he retreated with his daughter to the town of Lucerne, where he lived unknown and in wretchedness. My father loved Beaufort with the truest friendship, and was deeply grieved by his retreat in these unfortunate circumstances. He grieved also for the loss of his society, and resolved to seek him out and endeavour to persuade him to begin the world again through his credit and assistance.

Beaufort had taken effectual measures to conceal himself; and it was ten months before my father discovered his abode. Overjoyed at this discovery, he hastened to the house, which was situated in a mean street, near the Reuss. But when he entered, misery and despair alone welcomed him. Beaufort had saved but a very small sum of money from the wreck of his fortunes; but it was sufficient to provide him with sustenance for some months, and in the mean time he hoped to procure some respectable employment in a merchant’s house. The interval was consequently spent in inaction; his grief only became more deep and rankling, when he had leisure for reflection; and at length it took so fast hold of his mind, that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness, incapable of any exertion.

His daughter attended him with the greatest tenderness; but she saw with despair that their little fund was rapidly decreasing, and that there was no other prospect of support. But Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind of an uncommon mould; and her courage rose to support her in her adversity. She procured plain work; she plaited straw; and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life.

Several months passed in this manner. Her father grew worse; her time was more entirely occupied in attending him; her means of subsistence decreased; and in the tenth month her father died in her arms, leaving her an orphan and a beggar. This last blow overcame her; and she knelt by Beaufort’s coffin, weeping bitterly, when my father entered the chamber. He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care, and after the interment of his friend he conducted her to Geneva, and placed her under the protection of a relation. Two years after this event Caroline became his wife.

When my father became a husband and a parent, he found his time so occupied by the duties of his new situation, that he relinquished many of his public employments, and devoted himself to the education of his children. Of these I was the eldest, and the destined successor to all his labours and utility. No creature could have more tender parents than mine. My improvement and health were their constant care, especially as I remained for several years their only child. But before I continue my narrative, I must record an incident which took place when I was four years of age.

My father had a sister, whom he tenderly loved, and who had married early in life an Italian gentleman. Soon after her marriage, she had accompanied her husband into his native country, and for some years my father had very little communication with her. About the time I mentioned she died; and a few months afterwards he received a letter from her husband, acquainting him with his intention of marrying an Italian lady, and requesting my father to take charge of the infant Elizabeth, the only child of his deceased sister. “It is my wish,” he said, “that you should consider her as your own daughter, and educate her thus. Her mother’s fortune is secured to her, the documents of which I will commit to your keeping. Reflect upon this proposition; and decide whether you would prefer educating your niece yourself to her being brought up by a stepmother.”

My father did not hesitate, and immediately went to Italy, that he might accompany the little Elizabeth to her future home. I have often heard my mother say, that she was at that time the most beautiful child she had ever seen, and shewed signs even then of a gentle and affectionate disposition. These indications, and a desire to bind as closely as possible the ties of domestic love, determined my mother to consider Elizabeth as my future wife; a design which she never found reason to repent.

From this time Elizabeth Lavenza became my playfellow, and, as we grew older, my friend. She was docile and good tempered, yet gay and playful as a summer insect. Although she was lively and animated, her feelings were strong and deep, and her disposition uncommonly affectionate. No one could better enjoy liberty, yet no one could submit with more grace than she did to constraint and caprice. Her imagination was luxuriant, yet her capability of application was great. Her person was the image of her mind; her hazel eyes, although as lively as a bird’s, possessed an attractive softness. Her figure was light and airy; and, though capable of enduring great fatigue, she appeared the most fragile creature in the world. While I admired her understanding and fancy, I loved to tend on her, as I should on a favourite animal; and I never saw so much grace both of person and mind united to so little pretension.

Every one adored Elizabeth. If the servants had any request to make, it was always through her intercession. We were strangers to any species of disunion and dispute; for although there was a great dissimilitude in our characters, there was an harmony in that very dissimilitude. I was more calm and philosophical than my companion; yet my temper was not so yielding. My application was of longer endurance; but it was not so severe whilst it endured. I delighted in investigating the facts relative to the actual world; she busied herself in following the ærial creations of the poets. The world was to me a secret, which I desired to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she sought to people with imaginations of her own.

My brothers were considerably younger than myself; but I had a friend in one of my schoolfellows, who compensated for this deficiency. Henry Clerval was the son of a merchant of Geneva, an intimate friend of my father. He was a boy of singular talent and fancy. I remember, when he was nine years old, he wrote a fairy tale, which was the delight and amazement of all his companions. His favourite study consisted in books of chivalry and romance; and when very young, I can remember, that we used to act plays composed by him out of these favourite books, the principal characters of which were Orlando, Robin Hood, Amadis, and St. George.

No youth could have passed more happily than mine. My parents were indulgent, and my companions amiable. Our studies were never forced; and by some means we always had an end placed in view, which excited us to ardour in the prosecution of them. It was by this method, and not by emulation, that we were urged to application. Elizabeth was not incited to apply herself to drawing, that her companions might not outstrip her; but through the desire of pleasing her aunt, by the representation of some favourite scene done by her own hand. We learned Latin and English, that we might read the writings in those languages; and so far from study being made odious to us through punishment, we loved application, and our amusements would have been the labours of other children. Perhaps we did not read so many books, or learn languages so quickly, as those who are disciplined according to the ordinary methods; but what we learned was impressed the more deeply on our memories.

In this description of our domestic circle I include Henry Clerval; for he was constantly with us. He went to school with me, and generally passed the afternoon at our house; for being an only child, and destitute of companions at home, his father was well pleased that he should find associates at our house; and we were never completely happy when Clerval was absent.

I feel pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind, and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self. But, in drawing the picture of my early days, I must not omit to record those events which led, by insensible steps to my after tale of misery: for when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion, which afterwards ruled my destiny, I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but, swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys.

Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate; I desire therefore, in this narration, to state those facts which led to my predilection for that science. When I was thirteen years of age, we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon: the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate, and the wonderful facts which he relates, soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind; and, bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. I cannot help remarking here the many opportunities instructors possess of directing the attention of their pupils to useful knowledge, which they utterly neglect. My father looked carelessly at the title-page of my book, and said, “Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me, that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded, and that a modern system of science had been introduced, which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical; under such circumstances, I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside, and, with my imagination warmed as it was, should probably have applied myself to the more rational theory of chemistry which has resulted from modern discoveries. It is even possible, that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents; and I continued to read with the greatest avidity.

When I returned home, my first care was to procure the whole works of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with delight; they appeared to me treasures known to few beside myself; and although I often wished to communicate these secret stores of knowledge to my father, yet his indefinite censure of my favourite Agrippa always withheld me. I disclosed my discoveries to Elizabeth, therefore, under a promise of strict secrecy; but she did not interest herself in the subject, and I was left by her to pursue my studies alone.

It may appear very strange, that a disciple of Albertus Magnus should arise in the eighteenth century; but our family was not scientifical, and I had not attended any of the lectures given at the schools of Geneva. My dreams were therefore undisturbed by reality; and I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life. But the latter obtained my most undivided attention: wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!

Nor were these my only visions. The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded by my favourite authors, the fulfilment of which I most eagerly sought; and if my incantations were always unsuccessful, I attributed the failure rather to my own inexperience and mistake, than to a want of skill or fidelity in my instructors.

The natural phænomena that take place every day before our eyes did not escape my examinations. Distillation, and the wonderful effects of steam, processes of which my favourite authors were utterly ignorant, excited my astonishment; but my utmost wonder was engaged by some experiments on an air-pump, which I saw employed by a gentleman whom we were in the habit of visiting.

The ignorance of the early philosophers on these and several other points served to decrease their credit with me: but I could not entirely throw them aside, before some other system should occupy their place in my mind.

When I was about fifteen years old, we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunder-storm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura; and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak, which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbands of wood. I never beheld any thing so utterly destroyed.

The catastrophe of this tree excited my extreme astonishment; and I eagerly inquired of my father the nature and origin of thunder and lightning. He replied, “Electricity”; describing at the same time the various effects of that power. He constructed a small electrical machine, and exhibited a few experiments; he made also a kite, with a wire and string, which drew down that fluid from the clouds.

This last stroke completed the overthrow of Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, who had so long reigned the lords of my imagination. But by some fatality I did not feel inclined to commence the study of any modern system; and this disinclination was influenced by the following circumstance.

My father expressed a wish that I should attend a course of lectures upon natural philosophy, to which I cheerfully consented. Some accident prevented my attending these lectures until the course was nearly finished. The lecture, being therefore one of the last, was entirely incomprehensible to me. The professor discoursed with the greatest fluency of potassium and boron, of sulphates and oxyds, terms to which I could affix no idea; and I became disgusted with the science of natural philosophy, although I still read Pliny and Buffon with delight, authors, in my estimation, of nearly equal interest and utility.

My occupations at this age were principally the mathematics, and most of the branches of study appertaining to that science. I was busily employed in learning languages; Latin was already familiar to me, and I began to read some of the easiest Greek authors without the help of a lexicon. I also perfectly understood English and German. This is the list of my accomplishments at the age of seventeen; and you may conceive that my hours were fully employed in acquiring and maintaining a knowledge of this various literature.

Another task also devolved upon me, when I became the instructor of my brothers. Ernest was six years younger than myself, and was my principal pupil. He had been afflicted with ill health from his infancy, through which Elizabeth and I had been his constant nurses: his disposition was gentle, but he was incapable of any severe application. William, the youngest of our family, was yet an infant, and the most beautiful little fellow in the world; his lively blue eyes, dimpled cheeks, and endearing manners, inspired the tenderest affection.

Such was our domestic circle, from which care and pain seemed for ever banished. My father directed our studies, and my mother partook of our enjoyments. Neither of us possessed the slightest pre-eminence over the other; the voice of command was never heard amongst us; mutual affection engaged us all to comply with and obey the slightest desire of each other.