Explore "Falkner" by Mary Shelley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
FALKNER'S NARRATIVE
"To palliate crime, and, by investigating motive, to render guilt less odious -- such is not the feeling that rules my pen; to confer honour upon innocence, to vindicate virtue, and announce truth -- though that offer my own name as a mark for deserved infamy -- such are my motives. And if I reveal the secrets of my heart, and dwell on the circumstances that led to the fatal catastrophe I record, so that, though a criminal, I do not appear quite a monster, let the egotism be excused for her dear sake -- within whose young and gentle heart I would fain that my memory should be enshrined without horror, though with blame.