immense mountains and precipices
The reader observes a carefully registered journey from the beautiful into
the sublime, from what Elizabeth has proposed as a domestic enclosure,
warding off the unimaginable and protecting the family unit from threat,
into another confrontation, at least for Victor, with elemental nature,
with destruction and with fresh creation. The transitional point of this
rite of passage is marked by the village of St. Martin in the Shelleys' account of their excursion
to Chamonix.
