Book Cover of Rappaccini's Daughter

Rappaccini's Daughter

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story is set in Padua, Italy, in a distant and unspecified past, possibly in the sixteenth century, after the Paduan Botanical Garden had been founded. Giovanni Guasconti, a young student recently arrived from Naples, Southern Italy, to study at the University of Padua, is renting a room in an ancient building that still exhibits the Coat of Arms of the once-great, long since extinct Scrovegni family. Giovanni has studied Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and remembers that an ancestor of the Scrovegni, Reginaldo degli Scrovegni, appears in Dante's Hell, as a usurer and a sinner against Nature and Art . From his quarters, Giovanni looks at Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini, a botanist who works in isolation. Beatrice is confined to the lush and locked gardens, which are filled with exotic poisonous plants grown by her father. Having fallen in love, Giovanni enters the garden and secretly meets with Beatrice a number of times, while ignoring his mentor, Professor Pietro Baglioni, who is a rival of Dr. Rappaccini and warns Giovanni that Rappaccini is devious and that he and his work should be avoided.

Book Details

Language

English

Original Language

English

Published In

1844

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne image

Nathaniel Hawthorne

United States

Hawthorne's works belong to romanticism or, more specifically, dark romanticism, cautionary tales that suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of humanity.Many of his...

More on Nathaniel Hawthorne

Download eBooks

Unfortunately, no ebooks exist for this book, yet...

Listen/Download Audiobook

Read by:
00:00
Playback Speed 1.0
00:00
  • Select Speed

Related books

Once a Week Cover image

Once a Week by A. A. Milne

A collection of short stories by famed Winnie the Pooh author, A.A. Milne. This charmingly humorous work from Milne's earlier writing period was first...

Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches Cover image

Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches by Maurice Baring

What if Orpheus had come to London instead of Hades? In Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches, Maurice Baring brings together a collectio...

The Boy Scouts at the Battle of Saratoga Cover image

The Boy Scouts at the Battle of Saratoga by St. George Henry Rathborne

Three young men, Dan, Joe and Late, are on an errand for General Schuyler. They are to meet up with a mysterious stranger, who gives them reports of e...

Herbert West: Reanimator Cover image

Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft

"Herbert West–Reanimator" is a horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was written between October 1921 and June 1922. It was first...

Little Minnie, and Other Stories Cover image

Little Minnie, and Other Stories by Pansy (Isabella Macdonald Alden)

In the enchanting world of "Little Minnie, and Other Stories" by Pansy, embark on a captivating journey through the realm of faith, morality, and pers...

An Anglo-American Alliance: A Serio-Comic Romance and Forecast of the Future Cover image

An Anglo-American Alliance: A Serio-Comic Romance and Forecast of the Future by Gregory Casparian

The book is a blend of humor and serious contemplation, as it delves into the political and social issues that were affecting the two countries at the...

Is He Popenjoy ? Cover image

Is He Popenjoy ? by Anthony Trollope

Trollope returns in Is He Popenjoy to two of his favorite subjects: property and inheritance. As in "Doctor Thorne," the issues are complicated by the...

Henrietta Temple  Cover image

Henrietta Temple by Benjamin Disraeli

Henrietta Temple is a semi-autobiographical novel and the author's first true success. Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield and later British Prime...

St Andrews Ghost Stories Cover image

St Andrews Ghost Stories by William Thomas Linskill

In the shadowed corridors of Scotland's oldest university, whispers of the past echo through time, and chilling tales emerge to haunt the curious soul...

Valda berättelser Cover image

Valda berättelser by Selma Lagerlof

Dyk ner i Selma Lagerlöfs fascinerande värld av berättelser, där det övernaturliga möter mänsklig värme och djup. "Valda berättelser" är en mästerlig...

Reviews for Rappaccini's Daughter

No reviews posted or approved, yet...