While foraging for food in the woods around the cottage one night, the  monster finds an abandoned leather satchel containing some clothes and  books. Eager to learn more about the world than he can discover through  the chink in the cottage wall, he brings the books back to his hovel and  begins to read. The books include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Sorrows  of Werter, a volume of Plutarch’s Lives, and John Milton’s Paradise  Lost, the last of which has the most profound effect on the monster.  Unaware that Paradise Lost is a work of imagination, he reads it as a  factual history and finds much similarity between the story and his own  situation. Rifling through the pockets of his own clothes, stolen long  ago from Victor’s apartment, he finds some papers from Victor’s journal.  With his newfound ability to read, he soon understands the horrific  manner of his own creation and the disgust with which his creator  regarded him.  Dismayed by these discoveries, the monster wishes to reveal himself to  the cottagers in the hope that they will see past his hideous exterior  and befriend him. He decides to approach the blind De Lacey first,  hoping to win him over while Felix, Agatha, and Safie are away. He  believes that De Lacey, unprejudiced against his hideous exterior, may  be able to convince the others of his gentle nature.  The perfect opportunity soon presents itself, as Felix, Agatha, and  Safie depart one day for a long walk. The monster nervously enters the  cottage and begins to speak to the old man. Just as he begins to explain  his situation, however, the other three return unexpectedly. Felix  drives the monster away, horrified by his appearance.