The timetable seems seriously awry at this point. Henry Clerval was murdered in late
August. Victor's subsequent breakdown forced a two-month delay during which his father
was summoned, and the trial seems to have transpired about a month after Alphonse
Frankenstein's arrival. This would put it in the December following the summer's removal
to the Orkney Islands. Victor's release from prison ensued in a fortnight (III:4:44),
and he records that thereafter he and his father left Ireland as speedily as they
could (III:4:48). Thus, the arrival in Paris should come some four months earlier
than Elizabeth's letter makes it. This error is attenuated in the first edition, we
may remember, by a similar lapse of time in the trip to England, where, though it
appears that Victor and Henry begin their trip down the Rhine in early September,
they are not reported as having crossed the channel until the "latter days of September
" (III:1:24).
Scrutiny of the surviving manuscripts suggests that Mary Shelley had her chronology
straight the first time around and for some reason changed her mind and then, again,
subsequently compounded the confusion. In the draft she originally had Victor and
his father arrive in Le Havre on the "8th of Feb." and dated Elizabeth's letter from
Geneva "February 18th;" then in each case she crossed out the month, substituting
"May." In the fair copy intended for the printer, Elizabeth's letter was first dated
"April," but this designation was cancelled and replaced with "May 18th."