‘…or as forming one of the great motives of interest and curiosity to the general Traveller of taste and intelligence.’

‘…the Architect may gather new ideas and inexhaustible combinations of beauty, or as furnishing the Painter with an endless variety of graceful and imposing arrangements of form heightened occasionally by a sublimity of effect, peculiar to edifices of this period…’

The introductory page states the drawings have ‘no other object than an ardent desire to present a free and artist-like, as well as faithful representation of some of the most beautiful and picturesque fragments of the Architecture of the Middle Ages.’

The first Frankenstein illustration depicts page 43: “by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull, yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs, … I rushed out of the room”

Schiller's alleged antipathy to his creation reminds us of the story of Frankenstein, and is said to be why he left the work unfinished. We wonder what else these two stories have in common?

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These two pioneering gothic novels accompany each other well, concerned with the enlightenment and rationality, both using letters and diary extracts to advance the story, where the individual attempts to testify to the supernatural.

Good question!

We answer that (and more) in this blogpost:

collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...

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Visit the exhibition any time during @themerl.bsky.social's regular opening hours.

Plan your visit via The MERL's website today!

merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/

Find out more about James Joyce: Enigmas & Puzzles in the latest @uniofreading.bsky.social blogpost:

www.reading.ac.uk/news/2025/Un...

We also look after the personal archive of Beckett’s close friend, James Joyce.

Never-before-seen papers from this remarkable collection will appear soon in our upcoming free exhibition, James Joyce: Enigmas and Puzzles. Opens 7 Oct.

collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...

We're looking forward to sharing more information about this amazing visit very soon.

In the meantime, you can learn all about the contents and breadth of the Samuel Beckett Collection kept here at the @uniofreading.bsky.social on our website:

collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...

Have a peek at more of these treasures in our online exhibition:
collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...