MARY SHELLEY

It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.

The scent of absinthe, lightning, stormclouds, and laudanum crashing through a veil of soft Victorian perfume.