Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Bedside Lamp.3: An English Learning Reader

Author: Li Zhengshuan et al. (Editor-in-Chief)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-06-01
Features: Young British Captain Robert Walton leads his crew on an expedition to the frigid Arctic region, hoping to find a route through the Arctic Ocean to Asia. Due to the severe cold, the ice in the Arctic Ocean becomes increasingly thick, and their ship is on the verge of being trapped by solid ice. Suddenly, they spot a person pulling a sled across the ice, heading into the distance. To their astonishment, the figure was the size of six men—truly a legendary giant. The next day, they discover another person on the ice. This individual was drifting on a floating ice floe, with all the sled dogs dead. He was weak and appeared to have gone without food or water for many days. Captain Walton orders his crew to rescue him and provide aid. After a slight recovery, the man tells the captain his story: His name is Victor Frankenstein, and he comes from Geneva. His family is wealthy and highly respected. To study science and benefit humanity, he left his father, younger brother, and beautiful fiancée, Elizabeth, to attend university in Germany. After years of dedicated research, he creates a human being using bones taken from human corpses and animal organs—a grotesque and enormous creature. Terrified of the monster, he abandons it. The monster wanders the world, and due to its grotesque appearance, everyone treats it as a monster, with no one willing to befriend it. He saves a drowning child but is shot and injured by the child's father. Filled with rage, he decides to take revenge on Dr. Frankenstein, believing that it was the doctor who created and then abandoned him, leaving him isolated in the world. He kills the doctor's younger brother but frames the incident on the maid. In exchange for a promise not to seek further revenge, he forces the doctor to create a mate for him. After being refused, he kills the doctor's close friend, Henry, and on the night of the doctor's wedding, he kills his bride, Elizabeth. To avenge himself, the doctor pursues the monster relentlessly, all the way to the Arctic. Dr. Frankenstein knows his time is limited and asks Captain Walton to kill the monster to prevent more people from being killed. But as he nears death, he tells the captain that he has forgiven the monster, as he did not treat him kindly, allowing him to live a miserable and lonely life. In the end, the monster also takes his own life out of remorse for his actions.