《弗兰肯斯坦》第3期

Chapter 2 I was born in Switzerland, in the town of Geneva.

My parents loved each other very much, and I learnt from the example of their love. I learnt that to love and to be patient are the most important things in the world.

My mother hoped to have a daughter after I was born, but for five years I was the only child. And then my mother found a sister for me. She was helping a family in which there were five children.

They were very poor, and the children were thin and hungry. One of the children was a little girl, with golden hair and blue eyes Her name was Elizabeth.

My mother took the little girl into our family, and Elizabeth became the daughter that my mother had always wanted. As I grew older, my love for Elizabeth became stronger all the time.

Later my mother had two other sons, Ernest and William. A young woman called Justine came to live in the house to help my mother with the children.

We loved her as much as she loved us. The years passed happily, and we had everything that we needed.

At school I met another very fine person. His name was Henry Clerval, and he was very clever. My family also liked him very much, so he was a welcome visitor to our house.

I studied very hard at school. I wanted to know the secrets of life, and, most of all, I wanted to know how to make living things.

I read all the books that I could find. One day, some－thing happened that added a new idea to the ideas that I al－ready had.