In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the Modern
Prometheus, after Victor's illness, a number of incidents prohibit Victor
from returning home immediately.
While the weather makes
the roads to Geneva impassable, Clerval suggests that he and Victor go on a walking
tour:
...in
the environs of Ingolstadt, that I might bid a personal farewell to the country I had so
long inhabited. I acceded with pleasure...I was fond of exercise, and Clerval had always
been my favourite* companion in the rambles of this nature that I had taken among the
scenes of my native
country.
With regard to the
success of this plan of Clerval's, Victor was already much improved in his health,
but...
...[my
health and spirits] gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the
natural incidents of our progress, and the conversation of my friend....Clerval called
forth the better feelings of my heart...I became the same happy creature who, a few
years ago, loved and beloved by all, had no sorrow or
care.
For a short time, until
the creature reappears in Victor's life, he is much the man he was before his
experiments, finding joy in the life around him, a great deal because of Clerval's
dedication to seeing Victor through this dark time in his
life.
Clerval's diversion is a "walking tour," which is
like hiking and sight-seeing, and Clerval's plan does work in
making Victor even stronger, and much like his old
self.
*favourite - British spelling of
"favorite"
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