Thursday, March 5, 2009

Frankenstein and the 1001 Nights

Every book I read mentions the Nights for some reason, even/especially if it doesn't seem like it should.

Here's Frankenstein quotes:

(wonder which story/stories Frankenstein resembles? any ideas?)

52-3

What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp. Not that, like a magic scene, it all opened upon me at once: the information I had obtained was of a nature rather to direct my endeavours so soon as I should point them towards the object of my search, than to exhibit that object already accomplished. I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead, and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering, and seemingly ineffectual, light.

From explanatory notes 236:

From the Fourth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, in The Thousand and One Nights

and there are many later references to orientalism and these mysterious Arabians throughout the book, here is VF's childhood friend Henry:

On Clerval:

Resolved to pursue no inglorious career, he turned his eyes toward the East, as affording scope for his spirit of enterprise. The Persian, Arabic, and Sanscrit languages engaged his attention, and I was easily induced to enter on the same studies. Idleness had ever been irksome to me, and now that I wished to fly from reflection, and hated my former studies, I felt great relief in being the fellow-pupil with my friend, and found not only instruction but consolation in the works of the orientalists. I did not, like him, attempt a critical knowledge of their dialects, for I did not contemplate making any other use of them than temporary amusement. I read merely to understand their meaning, and they well repaid my labours. Their melancholy is soothing, and their joy elevating, to a degree I never experienced in studying the authors of any other country. When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a warm sun and a garden of roses, - in the smiles and frowns of a fair enemy, and the fire that consumes your own heart. How different from the manly and heroical poetry of Greece and Rome!

70-1

also about Henry:

The resources of his mind on this occasion were truly astonishing: his conversation was full of imagination; and very often, in imitation of the Persian and Arabic writers, he invented tales of wonderful fancy and passion.

There are also several other references to the Middle East but these seem to be directly influenced by the Nights at least.

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