NOTES

I belonged to a race of human beings

It requires but a moment's pause over this bland statement of relief, particularly in conjunction with Victor's fears, expressed at the beginning of the chapter, about propagating a race of devils (see III:3:2 and note) to realize that its premise is a blatant racism. Mary Shelley represents it without any underscoring, all the more suggestive of how inherent is the thinking, how psychologically embedded the attitude.