of his case, both for the magistrate and for Mary Shelley's readers. We cannot help
recognizing here that the end of a novel is to make fiction appear like truth. That
Victor in the end does not gain the credence of his judge does, of course, vindicate
his earlier reticence; but it also in some sense impinges on his reliability as a
witness. Does it also have a destabilizing effect on the larger narrative of which
it is a microcosm?