Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats: but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace, at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.
Shelley, Mary. 1818. Chapter 20.
James Allard delivers an intriguing lecture on Frankenstein, while showing off one way to structure a great talk: http://www.sindark.com/genre/James-Allard-Frankenstein.mp3
Great passage! Shelley was so young and clever when she wrote F.