Victor narrates that he and Elizabeth were almost the same age and grew up in perfect harmony, their personalities complementing each other: Elizabeth was calm and delighted by the Alpine scenery, while Victor pursued the causes of nature with intense curiosity. Their family settled in Geneva after the birth of Victor’s younger brother; they owned a house in the city and a country cottage at Belrive on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva, where they lived in seclusion. Victor describes his temper as inclined toward a few close friends, naming Henry Clerval, the son of a Geneva merchant, as his closest companion. Henry is portrayed as a singularly talented youth fond of adventure, chivalric romance, heroic songs, and theatrical masquerades drawn from Arthurian legend. Victor’s parents are portrayed as kind and indulgent, providing a fortunate upbringing. Victor confesses an early thirst for hidden laws of nature, preferring metaphysical and physical secrets over language, government, or politics. At thirteen, during a stay at the baths near Thonon, a storm forced him indoors where he discovered a volume of Cornelius Agrippa’s works. Despite his father’s contempt for the book as “sad trash,” Victor procured the complete works of Agrippa, Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus and studied them avidly, considering them treasures unknown to others. His dissatisfaction with modern philosophers persisted, and he admired Newton’s humility before the “unexplored ocean of truth.” When he was about fifteen, a violent thunderstorm struck near Belrive; a flash of fire consumed a nearby oak, leaving only a split stump. A man of natural philosophy present with the family explained the phenomenon in terms of electricity and galvanism, casting Agrippa’s alchemy into shadow. This encounter led Victor to abandon his occult studies, turn to mathematics and the more secure foundations of natural philosophy, feeling that a protective spirit had briefly redirected his fate before destiny’s “immutable laws” resumed their course toward his eventual ruin.