my imagination was too exalted
The word "imagination" is similarly exalted by Percy Bysshe Shelley in
the first paragraph of the Preface he
wrote for the first edition and, even moreso, by Mary Shelley in her
Introduction (see 3 and 10) to the third edition. Yet, clearly
the "doubt" that in these sentences is twice juxtaposed against this power is meant to
deflate its pretensions to be an absolute good. As the novel proceeds,
its questioning of the imagination will intensify.
