NOTES

Partly from curiosity

As Victor exactly echoes the diction used by Walton to explain his eagerness to hear the account to which he now listens (I:L4:31, and note), Mary Shelley reverts to the notion of curiosity as being, for better or worse, a fundamental human trait that impels the actions of all the major characters in the novel. Often, as here, the interest is wholly idle and unmotivated.