Summary

Chapter 3 starts with a quote from T.S. Eliot’s poem “Burnt Norton”: “Humankind cannot bear very much reality” (55). Mary Shelley says this is why we invent stories. Percy Shelley muses that we might become the stories we invent. The Shelleys and Lord Byron are still shut in by the rain in Geneva. Mary Shelley uses the time to write. Byron, who is on a diet because he is fat, is having trouble writing. His physician, Polidori, is writing a story called The Vampyre. The friends discuss the origin of life. Shelley’s doctor gave a talk in London in which he said human beings have no souls and are merely bone, muscle, and blood. Percy Shelley, however, believes man does have a soul.

Polidori has a serious crush on Mary Shelley, which he expresses awkwardly. While the others talk, Claire does needlework...