“I wrote then—but in a most commonplace style. It was beneath the trees of the grounds belonging to our house, or on the bleak sides of the woodless mountains near, that my true compositions were born and fostered.”

Linking the development of her imagination with solitude and landscape. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Creativity
• Nature
• Writing

“What I wrote was intended at least for one other eye—my childhood’s companion and friend.”

A glimpse of writing as an intimate act of communication rather than merely a public one. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Communication
• Friendship
• Writing

“The blank incapability of invention is the greatest misery of authorship, when dull Nothing replies to our anxious invocations.”

Capturing the particular frustration of creative work when inspiration refuses to arrive. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Creativity
• Frustration
• Writing

“I could scarcely accuse myself of a personal intrusion.”

Her wry justification for writing personally about the origins of her most famous work. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Humility
• Privacy
• Writing

“I am very averse to bringing myself forward in print.”

A modest glimpse of her reluctance to place herself personally before the reading public. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Humility
• Privacy
• Writing

“Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it.”

Presenting invention as the imaginative transformation of possibilities already present. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Creativity
• Ideas
• Writing

“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.”

A striking account of creativity as the shaping of existing materials rather than creation from nothing. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Creativity
• Ideas
• Writing

“They were the eyry of freedom, and the pleasant region where unheeded I could commune with the creatures of my fancy.”

Remembering the natural landscape as a place where imagination could flourish undisturbed. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Freedom
• Imagination
• Nature

“Still I had a dearer pleasure than this, which was the formation of castles in the air—the indulging in waking dreams—the following up trains of thought.”

Celebrating the imaginative freedom of daydreaming and mental invention. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Creativity
• Dreams
• Imagination

“As a child I scribbled; and my favourite pastime, during the hours given me for recreation, was to write stories.”

A revealing recollection of how naturally writing entered her childhood life. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Childhood
• Creativity
• Writing

“My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed—my dearest pleasure when free.”

Describing imagination as a private refuge and a source of freedom. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Dreams
• Freedom
• Imagination

“My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings.”

A candid reflection on the freedom and richness of imagination before it is shaped into literature. · Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

• Creativity
• Imagination
• Writing

“All you have to do for the next few years is to go out and get it. As, of course, you will.”

A brisk encouragement to make the most of opportunity through action. · Speech, Work in the Future, 1924

• Action
• Opportunity
• Success

“I have had the honour of meeting many such men of many nationalities, explorers of sand-buried cities and bold hunters of meridians across unexplored mountains.”

Celebrating the international community of explorers and their varied achievements. · Speech, The Verdict of Equals, 1912

• Adventure
• Discovery
• Travel

“The men who have borne the extremes of adventure and hardship have to report what they have done in man’s secular battle against Space and Time.”

Elevating exploration into a broader human struggle against the limits of geography and time. · Speech, The Verdict of Equals, 1912

• Adventure
• Courage
• Discovery

“I confess there is something, to me as terrible as it is touching, in the thought of the men even now scattered under the shadow of death.”

Expressing admiration mixed with apprehension for explorers facing extreme danger. · Speech, The Verdict of Equals, 1912

• Adventure
• Courage
• Danger

“The record of their toil receives its final stamp of worth.”

Describing the importance of expert judgement in recognising difficult achievement. · Speech, The Verdict of Equals, 1912

• Achievement
• Recognition
• Work

“It is a law of his being, and as such constitutes yet another handicap.”

Describing the inner compulsion to write as both gift and burden. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

• Creativity
• Difficulty
• Writing

“Sometimes they find it difficult to feed one.”

A stark reminder of the economic insecurity that can accompany literary work. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

• Difficulty
• Money
• Writing

“In other callings of life there exists a convention that what a man has made shall be his own and his children’s after him.”

Contrasting literary property with ordinary assumptions about ownership. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

• Property
• Work
• Writing

“The calling of letters carries with it disabilities from which these professions are free.”

Drawing attention to the particular difficulties faced by writers. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

• Difficulty
• Work
• Writing

“There are as many men nowadays as there were in Solomon’s time whose skill has not found favour.”

Suggesting that the problem of overlooked talent is timeless. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Success
• Talent

“They have elected to take their chance with time to come; but their descendants have to take certain or uncertain chances now.”

Pointing to the personal costs of artists sacrificing present security for future recognition. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Future
• Sacrifice

“Being artists, these men must needs do the work that is laid upon them to do, and while they are doing it they are apt to overlook a number of important worldly considerations.”

Describing the tension between artistic vocation and practical worldly concerns. · Speech, The Claims of Art, 1907

• Art
• Creativity
• Work