Next Event: Sept. 21st 7pm Harvard Coop in Cambridge, MA
Prologue
For far too many years Victor Frankenstein’s outrageous
fabrication has stood unchallenged. I can not blame Captain Walton for his role
in this, for he was most likely an honorable man who was duped by
Frankenstein’s egregious lies; lies told for no other reason than to save the
reputation and name of a sinister and black-hearted man, a man who had willingly
spent his life in the service of the devil. Nor can I blame Mary
Shelley for further putting these lies to paper once they had found their way
to her. The truth, though, is that Frankenstein was hardly the tragic figure
that he so skillfully presented himself as to Captain Walton, nor did he create
his abomination out of a youthful, but misguided obsession. Instead, he was a
man of a most depraved nature and spirit; his true intention being to create his
own hell on earth. I know all of this because I, Friedrich Hoffmann of Ingolstadt,
am the very same abomination that Frankenstein brought forth into the world.
Although the events that I put forth in this
journal took place over two hundred years ago, they are still quite vivid in my
mind. Victor Frankenstein’s villainous acts were numerous, as were his
unfortunate victims, among whose ranks I can chiefly be included. I hope that I
can now put his lies to rest and that the world will finally understand the
true story, as horrible as it is.
As I write this, I can only pray that
Frankenstein’s twisted soul is rotting in whatever crevice within hell it has surely
sunk into.
--Friedrich Hoffmann
Chapter 1
First my feet were broken.
Then my ankles.
After that it was my shins. The cudgel’s next targets
were my knees, shattering them as well.
I screamed, of course. I screamed with the first
blow and I screamed with each additional one. How could any man being broken on
the wheel not? Over my screams I heard the crowd that had been so exuberantly jeering
for my blood silence themselves as if on command. For a moment it was only my
screaming that filled the air. The moment did not last.
“Confess, Friedrich Hoffmann. Confess while you
are still able to!”
The priest was once again demanding my
confession. He had been the one to silence the crowd and momentarily stay the
executioner’s hand.
Using every ounce of strength I had I stopped my
screaming so that I could answer him.
“Am I to confess to a crime of which I am
innocent?” I asked him through my ragged breathing. “Especially a crime as wicked
as the one of which I am being accused? Would that not be a greater sin?”
I forced myself to meet the priest’s cold eyes. Eyes
that held not a drop of pity.
“You will die without absolution if you do not
confess,” he warned me in his thunderous voice. “Your unredemptive soul to be
condemned to hell. Confess now!”
I looked away from him and did not answer. I
could hear a grunt escape from the executioner’s lips and then my thigh bones
were shattered. With that blow the roar of the crowd swallowed me up.
Madness would have been a
welcome release, but somehow it never came. Even after the executioner had
broken my hips and moved on to my upper body, the madness stubbornly refused to
rescue me.
Deep within my heart I prayed.
My beloved
Johanna, you must believe that I am innocent of what they claim. Death does not
worry me, only the fear that these false accusations will keep me from you.
The blows from the cudgel had stopped. The
priest kneeled by me so that his awful face was near mine, his lips moving in a
cruel manner. I was beyond hearing his words. Instead I was swallowed up within
a cacophony of sounds. The roar of the crowd, the priest’s words, my own
screaming, all blending together into a deafening roar. Soon the priest
disappeared and the executioner took his place. Just as all noises had blended
together, so to did all my pain blend together. I wasn’t even aware that the
executioner had sliced open my arms so that my mangled bones could be braided
to the spokes of the wheel. It wasn’t until the wheel was lifted and I was
suspended by my broken arms that I understood that this had happened, but the
pain no longer mattered. I was beyond that.
I continued to pray.
Please,
Johanna, I beg of you, be there waiting for me. This death will be a blessing
if only I can look once more into your soft, lovely eyes…
The angry, hateful faces of the crowd dissolved
into a gray blur. My eyes drifted upwards
and I caught the flight of several black crows circling patiently overhead as
they waited.
Johanna,
always, I promise, always.
First the noises enveloping me disappeared. Then
the pain. I found myself at peace and watched as the crows faded into
blackness.
I know I died then. Nothing else would have been
possible. So where was I? Purgatory? It had to be that. How could it be
anything other than that? I couldn’t move. I couldn’t feel. I couldn’t see.
Utter despair filled my being. If I were in purgatory how would I ever see my
beloved Johanna again? But then as if to calm my fears a golden haze appeared before
me and within it an image took shape. A face. My vision was too blurry for
me to make out its details, but I knew it was a face. Of God? Who else could it
be? As quickly as the despair had earlier come, so too now the joy and rapture
that lifted me.
Words were spoken. The voice, though, was too
soft for me to understand, and the words blurred together as if they were a hum
intoned from far away.
And then I was in darkness again. Time crept intolerably
slowly after that. It was agony as I waited to know what had happened to me. Worse
even than what the executioner’s skillful cudgel had been able to inflict. Was
that truly the face of God I’d seen before? And if it was, would I be reunited
with my Johanna, or was I to spend eternity in purgatory, or worse!
My agony was suspended
when once again a golden light filled my vision, and once again I was able to
make out a face within its hazy glow, this time its features more distinct. The
face appeared angelic, and my heart soared. And once more a voice spoke to me.
While severely muffled, as if the speaker were under water, I could make out
the words.
“How are we now, my magnificent creation? Still
unable to move? Not to worry. That will pass as you grow stronger. You can see
me, can you? Oh how I wish you could answer me!”
Although his words confused me, his angelic
countenance soothed my fears. If I were indeed in purgatory, I would not be
there for long. Darkness came quickly again, but this time I did not despair,
although the loneliness I suffered had a heaviness to it that made me feel as
if I were drowning. I concentrated to break this loneliness by picturing my Johanna.
Her soft hazel eyes, the rosiness of her cheeks, her golden flowing hair, the
way her face would light up when she smiled at me. I tried to remember the way
her hand fitted so perfectly in mine as we would walk along the woods outside
of town, and the warmth against my lips when I would steal a kiss from her cheek.
Something strange happened while I pictured my
Johanna. I once again saw the same yellowish glow from before, but this time it
was because I realized I had developed the strength to open my eyes. I let my eyes
close and once again I was descended into darkness. I forced my eyes open and
once more saw the same yellowish glow.
I had believed the angelic face that earlier had
appeared and the darkness that followed were caused by heavenly forces, but I
realized that instead my eyelids earlier had been forcibly opened. That was why
I saw that face peering into mine. It was only a man who had pushed my eyelids
open, not God giving me a vision.
As this knowledge became irrefutable within my
mind, a horrible dread seized me. I had survived the executioner’s wheel. I
wasn’t in purgatory, but instead still of this world. My body presumably lay wherever
my host had brought me. Of course my body must be completely broken. But how
was that possible? The executioner had shattered my bones, and yet I felt
nothing. I knew the reason for this. My spine must have been
broken as well as my limbs. I could open my eyes, but otherwise I was in a
state of paralysis. But still, it made no sense. It was not possible to survive
the injuries that the executioner had inflicted on me. I was a chemist, a man
of science, and I understood that as well as anyone. And yet I was alive.
The golden glow that I had believed was the
breath of God was in fact sunlight filtering in through a window. I struggled
to keep my eyes open, and when the room later fell into darkness, I knew it was
because night had arrived.
My host returned again
that night. From the faint flickers of light that showed, I surmised that he
had lighted candles and had placed them around me. My senses were growing
stronger for although the odor was faint to me, I could smell something foul
and wretched. Possibly it was a salve that my host had placed over my wounds.
As a chemist I was familiar with many compounds and I tried to detect what this
one could have been made from, but the odor came from substances I was
unfamiliar with. While I tried to solve this vexing puzzle, I heard my host
chanting. His voice was too low for me to understand his words or even the
language being used, but the rhythmic chanting felt as if it were something
thick and oppressive that weighed heavily on me. There was something unholy
about it, something unnatural.
When the chanting ended and the candles were
snuffed out and my host had departed, I understood the truth. That I was in the
dwelling of a sorcerer.
PRAISE FOR MONSTER
"This is juicy material for Franken-fans, and Zeltserman is just faithful enough to the original that his many fresh contributions feel entirely normal. Well, abnormal, to be accurate, but deliciously so." Daniel Kraus, Booklist *Starred review*
"This reworking of Frankenstein is chilling and captivating!...A tale of justice, true love, and ultimate forgiveness, this gruesome novel is perfect for fans of Stephen King and similar horror stories." ForeWord Magazine, *Pick of the Week*
"a rich and fun response to Shelley's classic" Publisher's Weekly
"Magnificently horrific... a surprisingly profound reimagining of the Mary Shelley horror classic Frankenstein,... The obvious recommendation here is for horror fans and readers who loved Frankenstein but I would suggest Zeltserman’s Monster to literary and mainstream fiction readers as well. It’s an homage to Shelley’s classic, yes, but it’s also a powerful parable about having the courage to be ourselves" Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble
"Dave Zeltserman’s Monster is an ingenious interpretation of Shelley’s tale...[his] highly readable style harmonizes beautifully with its 19th century European setting. Monster is a must-read for anyone who enjoys horror stories, and shivers when Boris Karloff’s pale fingers twitch back into life." Historical Novels Review
"Zeltserman follows Shelley’s roadmap just enough to infuse the proceedings with a degree of familiarity, yet his point of view and unique deviations from the original story make every page a joy to read.... MONSTER is a book that horror fans and literature aficionados can read with equal gusto." BookReporter
"MONSTER is Gothic horror that pulls no punches — a brutal ride through a hellish tale... likely one of the best books of 2012" Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm
"I flat out loved it... A graphic, brutal story with heart and soul" Crimespree Magazine
"Zeltserman keeps the action moving relentlessly forward with minimal padding, either in terms of plot or prose. The action is tight and there’s no shade of purple in his style, but there’s plenty going on thematically." WBUR radio
"A masterpiece of originality, beauty, ugliness, eloquence, wisdom and power. And it's one hell of a page-turner as well." Ed Gorman
“This imaginative
"revisionist" novel by thriller writer Zeltsersman is narrated by the
man who woke up on Victor Frankenstein's lab table and found himself
transformed into the monster.” Newsday
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