Frankenstein book discussion: sources and scope

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus, the 1818 three-volume edition.
Edition record: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41445
Original text: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/41445/pg41445-images.html
Checked October 2, 2026. The transcription note identifies a photo-reprint of the 1818 edition. Chapter numbers below restart in each volume and are not taken from the revised 1831 edition.

Event locations
- Opening Letters I-IV: Walton's letters to his sister, voyage and encounter with Victor; the frame around Victor's account.
- Volume I, Chapters III-IV: study and creation; the November awakening and Victor's flight in Chapter IV.
- Volume I, Chapter VII, and Volume II, Chapter I: Justine's condemnation, execution and Victor's guilt.
- Volume II, Chapters II-VIII: the creature's account; language learning and firewood in Chapter IV; Paradise Lost, the blind father and rejection in Chapter VII; William's death and planted evidence in Chapter VIII.
- Volume II, Chapter IX: the request for a companion, promise to leave human society and Victor's agreement.
- Volume III, Chapter III: destruction of the unfinished second creation and wedding-night threat.
- Volume III, Chapters IV-VI: Clerval's death, wedding arrangements and Elizabeth's murder.
- Volume III, Chapter VII: pursuit, Victor's death, the creature's final account and departure into darkness and distance.

This is an original discussion and plot summary, not a full audiobook or a reading of a modern translation. No film-specific designs, dialogue or laboratory procedure are supplied as novel facts. The discussion of creation, responsibility, exclusion and narrative perspective is an interpretation, not a claimed author interview or the sole authorized meaning of the novel. The final intention to die is distinguished from the departure Walton actually witnesses.

Major events and the ending are discussed. No full source text or third-party illustrations are bundled. Source links and chapter notes are provided separately from narration.

Provided by Ryan Zhu, developer of 「自听」MyListen, with AI assistance. Audio uses archived Build 83 models and corresponding native code in a separate Mac mini tool; not an iPhone recording or performance test.