the journal of Clerval
Lacking the journal of Clerval, we will have to settle for that of Mary
Shelley, who traversed this route in 1814 and published it in her
History of a Six Weeks' Tour just before Frankenstein. At
that time the point of departure for the Shelley party was Basel.
Yet, that we lack Clerval's journal might in context seem strange. The
entire novel is based on the presence of an overload of documentary
information that includes the letters of Alphonse Frankenstein and
Elizabeth Lavenza, the journal letter of Robert Walton, his representation
of Victor's narrative (dutifully "corrected" by Victor), which in turn
contains the Creature's narrative, which is, in part, attested to by the
letters of Felix that the Creature promised to leave with Victor when he
finished. If we lack this last piece of evidence, however, we do not lack
its effect on the narrative, since Victor here calls attention to the
nature and quality of Clerval's writing.
