Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter

Slobodan Sucur (University of Alberta)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1844

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Allegory
Story

Resources

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“Rappaccini’s Daughter” is possibly the best known of Nathaniel Hawthorne's stories and was certainly given more revision than any of his other tales: it was first published in the

United States Magazine and Democratic Review

in December of 1844, included in his second short-story collection,

Mosses from an Old Manse

(1846), and received further “stylistic” modification in 1854 (

Hawthorne

X:507, 537, 549). The tale's third-person voice gives us a glimpse into the life of Giovanni Guasconti who has come from southern Italy to Padua, to pursue his studies there at the University. A garden next to his lodgings soon attracts his interest, and eventually his attention is riveted on a young woman who frequents that garden. A meeting between the two characters occurs and a relationship…

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2487 words

Citation: Sucur, Slobodan. "Rappaccini’s Daughter". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16909, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter

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