Four letters from Captain Robert Walton open Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Walton addresses the letters to his sister, Margaret Saville, while commanding an expedition toward the North Pole. The correspondence establishes the novel’s outer frame before Victor Frankenstein begins recounting his life and the creation of the creature.
The letters gradually build the book’s mystery. Walton describes his ambitions, his isolation from the crew, the dangerous Arctic environment, and the sight of a gigantic figure travelling across the ice. He then rescues Victor, who is weak and nearly frozen, and agrees to hear his extraordinary story.
Readers sometimes remember the opening as a single letter or confuse Walton’s letters with later correspondence in the novel. The first four letters are distinct sections, and their frame-narrative structure is important: Victor’s account is presented to Walton, whose written record is then presented to the reader. Walton’s ambition also mirrors Victor’s dangerous pursuit of knowledge.