This Dark Endeavor

There is a passion in you that scares me.

The preface? Why would he waste time with the preface? Skip the preface and move on to the meat of the thing!

It was as though, in one moment, he had become a stranger. And I a stranger to myself.

You see, when medicine works, it is blessed science, and when it fails, it is witchcraft. - Polidori

No, indeed, 'pig' is very expressive. And an excellent description of a fellow who flirts with his brother's beloved.

If she can bite a vulture, she can jump a crack. ~Victor Frankenstein

Beyond the lake, over the mountains, the clouds were illuminated from within by a brilliant stutter of lightning, and in that split second Elizabeth and I were etched against the sky.

Konrad had gone to the New World without me, and no matter how fast I ran westward, how close I kept to the sunsets, I would never catch up with him now.

We all knew no respectable physician would remove my fingers just for the asking, and we had no time anyway.

What do you make of him?" I asked Elizabeth. "Apart from the fact he's clearly insane?" "What can he learn from Konrad's blood?" I said. "Except that he needs it in his body to live!" "There is something ghoulish about it." "He's like a vampyre,

Behind us I saw the water, still welling up from the tunnel, curving round in a frothing serpentine torrent to plunge down the other descending passage. For a moment we all sat there and watched, numb and exhausted.

Do you worry it is sinful?" I asked. She took a breath. "No," she said firmly. "God is the creator, and anything on this earth is here by His permission. I cannot think He minds if we use His creations - only how. For good or ill. What we seek is for good, so I will not worry about it.