Penny Dreadful

Vanessa Ives: I have a need for a gentleman who's comfortable with firearms and not hesitant to engage in dangerous endeavors. Or was all that a tall tale as well? Ethan Chandler: What do you think? Vanessa: Expensive watch, but threadbare jacket. Sentimental about the money you used to have. Your eye is steady, but your left hand tremors. That's the drink, so you keep it below the table, hoping I won't notice. You have a contusion healing on your other hand, the result of a recent brawl with a jealous husband, no doubt. Your boots are good quality leather, but have been resoled more than once. I see a man who's been accustomed to wealth, but has given himself to excess and the unbridled pleasures of youth. A man much more complicated than he likes to appear.

Penny Dreadful, CC BY-SA 4.0

Vanessa: Do you believe there is a demimonde, Mr. Chandler? A half world between what we know and what we fear? A place in the shadows, rarely seen, but deeply felt. Do you believe that? Ethan: Yes. Vanessa: That's where we were last night, where some unfortunate souls are cursed to live always. If you believe in curses, that is.

Penny Dreadful, CC BY-SA 4.0

Victor Frankenstein: I would never chart a river or scale a peak to take its measure or plant a flag. There's no point. It's solipsistic self-aggrandizement. So too those scientists who study the planets seeking astronomical enlightenment for its own sake. The botanist studying the variegation of an Amazonian fern. The zoologist caught up in the endless fascination of an adder's coils. And for what? Knowledge for itself alone? The elation of discovery? Plant your flag on the truth? There is only one worthy goal for scientific exploration... piercing the tissue that separates life from death. Everything else, from the deep bottom of the sea to the top of the highest mountain on the farthest planet, is insignificant. Life and death, Sir Malcolm. The flicker that separates one from the other, fast as a bat's wing, more beautiful than any sonnet. That is my river. That is my mountain. There I will plant my flag. Sir Malcolm Murray: You have the soul of a poet, sir. Victor: And the bank acc

Penny Dreadful, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sir Malcolm: I'm trying to rescue my daughter. To save her, I would murder the world. Join me, doctor. With me, you will behold terrible wonders. Victor: And how much of the world will we have to murder? Sir Malcolm: Do you care? Victor: I've only one other question: Why me? Sir Malcolm: Because you were unafraid to pull back the skin and look beneath.

Penny Dreadful, CC BY-SA 4.0

There was another thought when she was so very close to me, a strange working of memory. I thought of a particular lion hunt many years ago. You're moving through the tall grass, getting a glimpse of the prey, the shoulders mostly, the mane. You prepare your rifle. You're very quiet. And then there's a moment. The wind changes, the grass stops swaying. The lion turns, looks at you. The moment you realize you are no longer the hunter, you are the prey.

Penny Dreadful, CC BY-SA 4.0

Victor: My mother taught me many things. Among the most useful is that one must always have Shakespeare at hand. Galsworthy: They're not for the fainthearted. Sir Malcolm: My heart has never fainted. Sir Malcolm: You see, you're hunting for a man. You need to start hunting for a beast Proteus: Victor, what am I? Victor: Man does not live only in the empirical. We must seek the ephemeral, or why live? Vanessa: "If this belief from heaven be sent, if such be nature's holy plan... " Victor: "Have I not reason to lament... " Vanessa and Victor: "What man has made of man." Victor: The ancient Egyptian religions were unique in a way. They had a singular goal. Not transmutation to an afterlife, but something even more profound: eternal life. Ethan: Brona? Brona: It's Gaelic. Ethan: What does it mean? Brona: Sadness Brona Croft: Sir, you shouldn't. Dorian Gray: I don't know the word. Dorian: It was more of a... random invitation. Vanessa: Do you get many of those? Dorian: Entirely. Vanessa: Yo

Penny Dreadful, CC BY-SA 4.0