childhood

Victor Frankenstein experiences an idyllic childhood in Switzerland, surrounded by a loving family and accompanied by his adored cousin Elizabeth. He is fascinated by ancient philosophers whose grandiose ambitions included looking for an Elixir of Life. After the death of his mother, his first unhappy experience, he attends University in Germany where he applies his new-found knowledge of science to...

In the haunting tale of 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' Edgar Allan Poe masterfully weaves a narrative rife with melancholy, dread, and the supernatural. When the unnamed narrator arrives at the crumbling mansion of his childhood friend, Roderick Usher, he is plunged into a world of decay and madness. As the boundaries between reality and nightmare blur, the house itself becomes an echoing character,...

James Joyce first wrote Portrait as a one-thousand page novel, full of well-developed scenes and long explanations of Stephen’s motives, but he decided to trim it into a short book with a new sort of style. The novel tells the story of the first twenty years of Stephen Dedalus – a young Catholic boy growing up in late 19th century Ireland. As the title suggests, this is the story not just of a young...