What do you think?
Rate this book
Rappacini'nin Kızı
Fantastik edebiyatın büyük ustası Nathaniel Hawthorne'un kaleminden ürpertici güzellikte bir aşk öyküsü. Yayınlandığından bu yana iki kez filme çekilmiş, birkaç kez opera biçiminde sahnelenmiş ve büyük ozan Octavio Paz tarafından oyunlaştırılmış bir 19. yüzyıl masalı.
The Scarlet Letter'in yazarı, bu küçük başyapıtla yine gizemli dünyaların kapısını aralıyor.
The Scarlet Letter'in yazarı, bu küçük başyapıtla yine gizemli dünyaların kapısını aralıyor.
Paperback
First published December 1, 1844
237 people are currently reading
5144 people want to read
About the author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
5,172 books3,472 followersNathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history.
Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to painter and illustrator Sophia Peabody the next year. He worked at a Custom House and joined a Transcendentalist Utopian community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before returning to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children.
Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States President Franklin Pierce.
Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to painter and illustrator Sophia Peabody the next year. He worked at a Custom House and joined a Transcendentalist Utopian community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before returning to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children.
Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States President Franklin Pierce.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 547 reviews
October 23, 2019
What a classic gothic gem! Giovanni studies in Padua and meets Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr Rappaccini (an obsessed scientist with a fatal love for science). Every day they meet in the doctor's garden. But it is a very special garden, an "Eden of poisenous flowers". Beatrice seems to be immune against the poisenous flowers surrounding her, Giovanni on the other hand already feels the impact of the fatal flowers on himself. Is there a cure against the deadly threat? Prof Baglioni, a competitor of the critically seen Rappaccini, gives Giovanni an antidote (Collin's vase). Will it lead to a happy ending? Beatrice is a femme fatale in the truest sense of the word. I absolutely loved the storytelling, the allusion to the Garden of Eden, the dualism of science vs nature, the frame story. It's a compelling classic you shouldn't miss. Absolutely recommended!
November 11, 2019
Book Review
3+ of 5 stars to Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” many characters suffer from moral ambiguity. Thus, readers of this story often have a hard time discerning which characters are “good” and which ones are “evil.” Hawthorne specifically creates these twists in his masterpiece “Rappaccini’s Daughter” to provide his readers with mysterious, dramatic, and multi-dimensional characters who are never strictly good or solely evil. When characters are strictly one-sided, readers automatically feel hatred or love for the characters, and the story’s plot becomes predictable.
If the plot of a story becomes predictable, then the entire story becomes dull and flat. This predictability occurs as a result of characters with one-sided and insipid personalities. Eventually, readers know exactly what to expect, and are not happy when there are no big surprises or sneaky twists. However, when an author creates characters who have both good and evil qualities, (s)he produces a mind-blowing story in which there is no predicting what the characters will do or how the story will end. For example, in “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” Baglioni says and does many different things that send chills up the readers’ spines. Although Baglioni is gentle and kind when he gives an antidote to Giovanni, he is not completely innocent. He has an extreme hatred for Beatrice and her father Rappaccini. Baglioni feels that the two garden dwellers are extremely corrupt people who are only in Padua to destroy the society. When Hawthorne creates these two sides to Baglioni, making him a pivotal part of the action, he shows that almost anything could happen in the story. It isn’t as if Baglioni is simply a kind old man who would do anything for his fellow man; Baglioni could do anything from breaking into a murderous outrage to leaving Giovanni suffer the consequences for pursuing Beatrice without the knowledge of who she is really. However, readers are thrown a very unpredictable ending where Baglioni is concerned. After his antidote has killed Beatrice, Baglioni shouts out “in a tone of triumph mixed with horror,” which shows that he feels both victorious over the supposedly evil Rappaccini and scared that he has killed a woman. This ending raises many questions: Did Baglioni purposely try to end the curse by killing Beatrice? Was his antidote an accidental death for the poor woman? Was it a combination of both fear and hope in Baglioni’s mind? The turbulent description of Baglioni leaves the readers wondering who he really is, which in turn, makes the readers then wonder how the story will end. There is no foreshadowing in the story about Baglioni being the one to give the antidote to Beatrice, either saving her or killing her. The shady areas of his character help give the plot an aura of mystery so that the story is unpredictable. Hawthorne purposely intends to challenge the readers as to which characters are good and which are evil so that he can hold their attention, keep them guessing and keep them thirsting for more.
When Hawthorne challenges his readers about the characters’ virtues, he takes advantage of the opportunity to give the characters multi-faceted layers, thus creating more than one-side to their views on good and evil. However, with one-dimensional personalities, characters tend to do the same thing all the time. If they are totally evil, then the readers most likely hate the characters. On the other hand, the characters can also be extremely “good,” which annoys readers. Readers don’t particularly care for goody-two-shoes. Also, when a character thinks on the same track all the time, readers might begin to like that character and only root for him/her, all the while missing the point of the story. In “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” the characters of Rappaccini and Beatrice both trouble the audience. No one is one hundred percent positive of either of their innocence or their deception. As a result, readers are enthralled by the story, constantly in wonder as to whether Rappaccini planned the whole poisonous game. Also, Beatrice seems to have a shady side in which she is either in on the game or completely oblivious to it. “Hawthorne’s wife asked him how it would end, whether Beatrice was to be a demon or an angel? Hawthorne replies, with some emotion, ‘I have no idea!” (Mack 97). Even Hawthorne wasn’t sure until the end how he wanted the characters to turn out. In the end, one never knows. It’s up to an individual’s interpretation of “good” and “evil.”
When it comes to distinguishing between “good” and “evil” among the characters in Hawthorne’s short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” readers have difficulty. Hawthorne uses Beatrice, Baglioni, and Rappaccini to show how multi-faceted characters create suspenseful, dramatic, and enigmatic story. When a character is totally one-dimensional, readers often dislike them and the plot is unpredictable. Rita K. Gollin, a noted scholar, sums it up best by telling all Hawthorne readers that “he makes [his audience] probe beneath surface appearances and permits no simplistic judgments: characters are not simply good or bad but mixed. [Readers need to] evaluate them in terms of their interfusion of mind, heart, and imagination, and what they nurture or destroy” (Lauter 2115).
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.
3+ of 5 stars to Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” many characters suffer from moral ambiguity. Thus, readers of this story often have a hard time discerning which characters are “good” and which ones are “evil.” Hawthorne specifically creates these twists in his masterpiece “Rappaccini’s Daughter” to provide his readers with mysterious, dramatic, and multi-dimensional characters who are never strictly good or solely evil. When characters are strictly one-sided, readers automatically feel hatred or love for the characters, and the story’s plot becomes predictable.
If the plot of a story becomes predictable, then the entire story becomes dull and flat. This predictability occurs as a result of characters with one-sided and insipid personalities. Eventually, readers know exactly what to expect, and are not happy when there are no big surprises or sneaky twists. However, when an author creates characters who have both good and evil qualities, (s)he produces a mind-blowing story in which there is no predicting what the characters will do or how the story will end. For example, in “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” Baglioni says and does many different things that send chills up the readers’ spines. Although Baglioni is gentle and kind when he gives an antidote to Giovanni, he is not completely innocent. He has an extreme hatred for Beatrice and her father Rappaccini. Baglioni feels that the two garden dwellers are extremely corrupt people who are only in Padua to destroy the society. When Hawthorne creates these two sides to Baglioni, making him a pivotal part of the action, he shows that almost anything could happen in the story. It isn’t as if Baglioni is simply a kind old man who would do anything for his fellow man; Baglioni could do anything from breaking into a murderous outrage to leaving Giovanni suffer the consequences for pursuing Beatrice without the knowledge of who she is really. However, readers are thrown a very unpredictable ending where Baglioni is concerned. After his antidote has killed Beatrice, Baglioni shouts out “in a tone of triumph mixed with horror,” which shows that he feels both victorious over the supposedly evil Rappaccini and scared that he has killed a woman. This ending raises many questions: Did Baglioni purposely try to end the curse by killing Beatrice? Was his antidote an accidental death for the poor woman? Was it a combination of both fear and hope in Baglioni’s mind? The turbulent description of Baglioni leaves the readers wondering who he really is, which in turn, makes the readers then wonder how the story will end. There is no foreshadowing in the story about Baglioni being the one to give the antidote to Beatrice, either saving her or killing her. The shady areas of his character help give the plot an aura of mystery so that the story is unpredictable. Hawthorne purposely intends to challenge the readers as to which characters are good and which are evil so that he can hold their attention, keep them guessing and keep them thirsting for more.
When Hawthorne challenges his readers about the characters’ virtues, he takes advantage of the opportunity to give the characters multi-faceted layers, thus creating more than one-side to their views on good and evil. However, with one-dimensional personalities, characters tend to do the same thing all the time. If they are totally evil, then the readers most likely hate the characters. On the other hand, the characters can also be extremely “good,” which annoys readers. Readers don’t particularly care for goody-two-shoes. Also, when a character thinks on the same track all the time, readers might begin to like that character and only root for him/her, all the while missing the point of the story. In “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” the characters of Rappaccini and Beatrice both trouble the audience. No one is one hundred percent positive of either of their innocence or their deception. As a result, readers are enthralled by the story, constantly in wonder as to whether Rappaccini planned the whole poisonous game. Also, Beatrice seems to have a shady side in which she is either in on the game or completely oblivious to it. “Hawthorne’s wife asked him how it would end, whether Beatrice was to be a demon or an angel? Hawthorne replies, with some emotion, ‘I have no idea!” (Mack 97). Even Hawthorne wasn’t sure until the end how he wanted the characters to turn out. In the end, one never knows. It’s up to an individual’s interpretation of “good” and “evil.”
When it comes to distinguishing between “good” and “evil” among the characters in Hawthorne’s short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” readers have difficulty. Hawthorne uses Beatrice, Baglioni, and Rappaccini to show how multi-faceted characters create suspenseful, dramatic, and enigmatic story. When a character is totally one-dimensional, readers often dislike them and the plot is unpredictable. Rita K. Gollin, a noted scholar, sums it up best by telling all Hawthorne readers that “he makes [his audience] probe beneath surface appearances and permits no simplistic judgments: characters are not simply good or bad but mixed. [Readers need to] evaluate them in terms of their interfusion of mind, heart, and imagination, and what they nurture or destroy” (Lauter 2115).
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.
September 3, 2018
3.5 stars. I hadn't heard of this particular story by Nathaniel Hawthorne until I read Theodora Goss' 2017 novel The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, a fantasy set in the Victorian era which includes Beatrice Rappachini as one of its cast of characters (along with a couple of Dr. Jekyll's daughters, a woman created by Dr. Frankenstein, and a cat-like woman from the island of Dr. Moreau. Quite the cast!). Since I was familiar with all of the source literature for all of those characters except Beatrice, I thought I owed it to her to check out her in the original story.
Giovanni Guasconti is a handsome young man studying at the University of Padua. His living quarter look out over a lush but ominous garden belonging to a Dr. Rappaccini. While Giovanni is gazing out, the doctor's daughter appears in the garden:
But Giovanni can't resist the beauty of Beatrice, and manages to find a way into the garden to strike up a relationship with her. She's as kind and intelligent as she is beautiful. His landlord, Professor Baglioni, warns him about Beatrice and her garden - both are lovely but poisonous to ordinary men - but Giovanni isn't of a mind to listen. Perhaps Professor Baglioni may have an answer for Giovanni, but can the professor be trusted?
"Rappacchini's Daughter" was published in 1844, and it has the detailed, stylized writing of the time, which can get a little hard to wade through. It's an interesting allegory of good and evil, the poisonous Garden of Eden, and the quest for knowledge - but at what cost? The key characters in this story all have both a good and a darker side to them, but it comes out in different ways for each character. As usual with Hawthorne, there's a lot of symbolism, and a strong moral to the tale.
I was a little startled to find that Beatrice and her lover get a far different ending in this original tale than in Goss' Alchemist's Daughter.
"Rappaccini's Daughter" is free to read online (or download) as part of this story collection here at Project Gutenberg.
Giovanni Guasconti is a handsome young man studying at the University of Padua. His living quarter look out over a lush but ominous garden belonging to a Dr. Rappaccini. While Giovanni is gazing out, the doctor's daughter appears in the garden:
Soon there emerged from under a sculptured portal the figure of a young girl, arrayed with as much richness of taste as the most splendid of the flowers, beautiful as the day, and with a bloom so deep and vivid that one shade more would have been too much. She looked redundant with life, health, and energy... Yet Giovanni's fancy must have grown morbid while he looked down into the garden; for the impression which the fair stranger made upon him was as if here were another flower, the human sister of those vegetable ones, as beautiful as they, more beautiful than the richest of them, but still to be touched only with a glove, nor to be approached without a mask.Beatrice has been living among her father's poisonous plants for so long that she's been imbued with their poison - normal plants wither when she breaths on them, and there's something very odd about her breath ...
But Giovanni can't resist the beauty of Beatrice, and manages to find a way into the garden to strike up a relationship with her. She's as kind and intelligent as she is beautiful. His landlord, Professor Baglioni, warns him about Beatrice and her garden - both are lovely but poisonous to ordinary men - but Giovanni isn't of a mind to listen. Perhaps Professor Baglioni may have an answer for Giovanni, but can the professor be trusted?
"Rappacchini's Daughter" was published in 1844, and it has the detailed, stylized writing of the time, which can get a little hard to wade through. It's an interesting allegory of good and evil, the poisonous Garden of Eden, and the quest for knowledge - but at what cost? The key characters in this story all have both a good and a darker side to them, but it comes out in different ways for each character. As usual with Hawthorne, there's a lot of symbolism, and a strong moral to the tale.
I was a little startled to find that Beatrice and her lover get a far different ending in this original tale than in Goss' Alchemist's Daughter.
"Rappaccini's Daughter" is free to read online (or download) as part of this story collection here at Project Gutenberg.
October 8, 2019
First published in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review (December, 1844), "Rappaccini's Daughter" is not only one of Hawthorne’s most characteristic stories, but also one of his best. Its eponymous heroine is a beautiful and innocent young girl who is also—quite literally—poison, and thus it embodies the Hawthorneian themes of flawed beauty, the inextricable bond between good and evil, and the naive and vicious hubris of the human intellect, which presumes to separate the two.
Hawthorne had discovered an ancient tale in some old author—it can be found both in Robert Burton and in Thomas Browne—of a beautiful woman sent to Alexander the Great by an Indian prince, a woman weaponized by being “nourished with poisons from her birth upward, until her whole nature was so imbued with them, that she herself had become the deadliest poison in existence.” Hawthorne, in his genius, created a situation both more poignant and morally repulsive. The godling who creates this creature is Rappaccini,a scientist specializing in poisons, and the woman he transforms is his own daughter Beatrice, as baleful as she is beautiful. Then Hawthorne places his Eve in a corrupt paradise, an enclosed garden full of beautiful and aromatic plants, each as deadly as the young girl who looks after them.
Hawthorne, unlike most other allegorists, is subtle and shifting in his use of imagery. All the men of the story: her monomaniacal father, his envious rival Baglioni, even her lover Giovanni, are compromised by evil. The only real innocent in the story is the lethal young lady herself:
"I would fain have been loved, not feared," murmured Beatrice, sinking down upon the ground.--"But now it matters not; I am going, father, where the evil, which thou hast striven to mingle with my being, will pass away like a dream--like the fragrance of these poisonous flowers, which will no longer taint my breath among the flowers of Eden. Farewell, Giovanni! Thy words of hatred are like lead within my heart--but they, too, will fall away as I ascend. Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?".
August 26, 2021
Nathaniel Hawthrone kinda snapped with this one
May 11, 2022
Interesting story! If I give too much away, I will take away some of the interest and fun and enjoyment in reading the book so I shall shut my pie-hole. Except to say that it took place in Padua Italy and there is a luxuriant garden involved as well as a beautiful damsel. I did learn from reading the foreword by Simon Schama that Ralph Waldo Emerson kicked Hawthorne out of his house (The Manse) near Boston for not paying rent. I also learned that he went to Bowdoin College, and one of his friends and classmates was Franklin Pierce who became the 14th President of the United States. And he knew Elizabeth Peabody who founded the kindergarten movement in America, and he married her sister (Sophia). So there. 🙃
There were two other short stories in this Hesperus Collection, ‘Young Goodman Brown’ (3 stars) and ‘A Select Party’ (not rated although I will say I didn’t understand any of it and it was not a fun read).
Reviews (don’t read until after you read the short story...the story was 43 pages in my Hesperus edition):
• https://thisismytruthnow.com/2017/05/...
• https://medium.com/@a0976217616/revie...
There were two other short stories in this Hesperus Collection, ‘Young Goodman Brown’ (3 stars) and ‘A Select Party’ (not rated although I will say I didn’t understand any of it and it was not a fun read).
Reviews (don’t read until after you read the short story...the story was 43 pages in my Hesperus edition):
• https://thisismytruthnow.com/2017/05/...
• https://medium.com/@a0976217616/revie...
November 2, 2019
Normally, I’m not a huge Hawthorne fan. I read The Scarlet Letter in high school because I had to do so. In the end, I did like the book. It’ll never be one of my favorite pieces but it is a great one to discuss and analyze. I read Young Goodman Brown and was not similarly moved. I figured Hawthorne wasn’t my cup of tea.
After reading Goss’ The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, I was intrigued by the story of Beatrice Rappaccini. As I was stuck in jury duty and I had already finished my other novel, I figured I would give the short story a go. I’m so glad I did!
It is beautifully told - perhaps I like Hawthorne when he’s less verbose. It’s a quick story that races to introduce us to Giovanni and Beatrice. Giovanni sees Beatrice in her father’s garden and falls for her...sort of. It’s not love, even he admits this. It’s more like attraction. He’s a butterfly who is attracted to a Venus fly trap. Giovanni learns quite a bit about Beatrice and her father, a doctor who does experiments with plants. Even in such a short piece, Hawthorne is able to focus on the two young people and get to the heart of who they are. The fact the story is from Giovanni’s point of view allows the reader to go on his quest with him. It’s the ending that makes your heart just break for Beatrice. So few lines dedicated to her, yet the piece does her character justice.
Rappaccini’s Daughter is an interesting, gothic tale that will make you ponder gender issues, love/attraction, and the power we all have to hurt one another.
After reading Goss’ The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, I was intrigued by the story of Beatrice Rappaccini. As I was stuck in jury duty and I had already finished my other novel, I figured I would give the short story a go. I’m so glad I did!
It is beautifully told - perhaps I like Hawthorne when he’s less verbose. It’s a quick story that races to introduce us to Giovanni and Beatrice. Giovanni sees Beatrice in her father’s garden and falls for her...sort of. It’s not love, even he admits this. It’s more like attraction. He’s a butterfly who is attracted to a Venus fly trap. Giovanni learns quite a bit about Beatrice and her father, a doctor who does experiments with plants. Even in such a short piece, Hawthorne is able to focus on the two young people and get to the heart of who they are. The fact the story is from Giovanni’s point of view allows the reader to go on his quest with him. It’s the ending that makes your heart just break for Beatrice. So few lines dedicated to her, yet the piece does her character justice.
Rappaccini’s Daughter is an interesting, gothic tale that will make you ponder gender issues, love/attraction, and the power we all have to hurt one another.
April 11, 2016
Not my kind of stories. I think I am done with this author.
December 6, 2024
Normally, I read short stories as part of collections, so don't typically review them separately. This one is part of Hawthorne's 1844 collection Mosses from an Old Manse, which was a favorite book of my teens, and the story was one of my favorites in the book; but my review of the collection says little more than that about it, except to classify it as science fiction and to recommend the 1980 American Short Story series adaptation starring Kristoffer Tabori (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081403/) as faithful to the original. It basically is, though there a few differences; but though I've seen the film several times and like it, watching it for the most recent time this past summer with one of my older grandsons and discussing it with him afterwards gave me a desire to reread the original and dig into its meaning more deeply. That was rewarding (I hadn't read the story itself for over 50 years, probably well over!); and since this was a new and focused read of the single story itself, I felt that it deserves a focused review of its own.
With that new perspective, it has to be said that this is actually a very difficult story to adapt in film format; there's a degree of ambiguity in the tale itself, but it's much more ambiguous without Hawthorne's many narrative comments and revelations of the viewpoint character's thoughts, which of course don't come through in a dramatized form. Even more than most short fiction, it's also very difficult to review without resorting to plot spoilers, though I'll attempt it. Before my reread, I'd also totally forgotten that Hawthorne, in a short prologue to this tale, presents it (tongue-in-cheek, of course!) as his translation of a story by an imaginary French writer, "M. de l'Aubepine." Hawthorne's comments about this fictional personage's work(s) make it clear that l'Aubepine is really a surrogate for himself, so that he's providing clues there about his approach to fiction in general, and to this story in particular.
Our setting is the real-life city of Padua in northern Italy, "very long ago." (The filmmakers took that to mean the early 1700s; when I read the book as a teen, I pictured the Renaissance era for this story.) We see events through the eyes of Giovanni, a young student from southern Italy who's come to attend the city's famous university. As the story proper opens, he takes a room that overlooks the private garden of the aged physician and botanical researcher (pre-modern medicine relied on plant-based pharmacopia), Dr. Rappaccini. Giovanni will soon learn that the doctor's researches and gardening activities revolve exclusively around very poisonous plants --most of which he's unnaturally cross-bred or grafted with each other to render them more toxic; and will also learn that the plants which are too dangerous for the doctor himself to handle or approach are given over to the care of his beautiful daughter Beatrice. She has no problem with them; but Giovanni sees evidence that her own touch or breath can kill living things. That doesn't stop him from developing an obsessive crush on her.
Hawthorne typically has conscious messages in his fiction, and though they may be complex and ambiguous, he wants them understood. But that understanding may be attained more through feelings than through the intellect. M. l'Aubepine, we're told, has an "inveterate love of allegory," and the trappings of real life in his tales tend to be just a veneer for a concern that really lies elsewhere than with the mundane. So the fact that the presentation of Beatrice's acquired attributes in the story is illogical, even within the internal logic of the story (though explaining how would involve spoilers) needn't concern us; Hawthorne is more interested in setting up a situation than in explaining how it could work. He's a Romantic, not a Realist, writer; and one of his messages here is very characteristic of Romantic SF: that the unnatural pursuit of forbidden knowledge is dangerous and destructive. As a Christian writer, he's also warning that humans can't usurp the place of God; the explicit references to Eden are instructive. (Like God, Rappaccini has made a garden; but it's not going to be paradisical.) The story also has something to say about the difference between love and selfish infatuation, about judging others, about the fact that love trusts, and about whether science can be trusted to clean up the messes caused by its own misuse.
After this reread, I feel like I have much more of a handle on what Hawthorne was seeking to do with this story, and can appreciate it even more! It still has unplumbed depths (for instance, I think there's a connection to Dante through Beatrice's name, but not having read Dante's poetry, I can't comment on that aspect); but I'm very glad to have interacted with the tale more deeply.
With that new perspective, it has to be said that this is actually a very difficult story to adapt in film format; there's a degree of ambiguity in the tale itself, but it's much more ambiguous without Hawthorne's many narrative comments and revelations of the viewpoint character's thoughts, which of course don't come through in a dramatized form. Even more than most short fiction, it's also very difficult to review without resorting to plot spoilers, though I'll attempt it. Before my reread, I'd also totally forgotten that Hawthorne, in a short prologue to this tale, presents it (tongue-in-cheek, of course!) as his translation of a story by an imaginary French writer, "M. de l'Aubepine." Hawthorne's comments about this fictional personage's work(s) make it clear that l'Aubepine is really a surrogate for himself, so that he's providing clues there about his approach to fiction in general, and to this story in particular.
Our setting is the real-life city of Padua in northern Italy, "very long ago." (The filmmakers took that to mean the early 1700s; when I read the book as a teen, I pictured the Renaissance era for this story.) We see events through the eyes of Giovanni, a young student from southern Italy who's come to attend the city's famous university. As the story proper opens, he takes a room that overlooks the private garden of the aged physician and botanical researcher (pre-modern medicine relied on plant-based pharmacopia), Dr. Rappaccini. Giovanni will soon learn that the doctor's researches and gardening activities revolve exclusively around very poisonous plants --most of which he's unnaturally cross-bred or grafted with each other to render them more toxic; and will also learn that the plants which are too dangerous for the doctor himself to handle or approach are given over to the care of his beautiful daughter Beatrice. She has no problem with them; but Giovanni sees evidence that her own touch or breath can kill living things. That doesn't stop him from developing an obsessive crush on her.
Hawthorne typically has conscious messages in his fiction, and though they may be complex and ambiguous, he wants them understood. But that understanding may be attained more through feelings than through the intellect. M. l'Aubepine, we're told, has an "inveterate love of allegory," and the trappings of real life in his tales tend to be just a veneer for a concern that really lies elsewhere than with the mundane. So the fact that the presentation of Beatrice's acquired attributes in the story is illogical, even within the internal logic of the story (though explaining how would involve spoilers) needn't concern us; Hawthorne is more interested in setting up a situation than in explaining how it could work. He's a Romantic, not a Realist, writer; and one of his messages here is very characteristic of Romantic SF: that the unnatural pursuit of forbidden knowledge is dangerous and destructive. As a Christian writer, he's also warning that humans can't usurp the place of God; the explicit references to Eden are instructive. (Like God, Rappaccini has made a garden; but it's not going to be paradisical.) The story also has something to say about the difference between love and selfish infatuation, about judging others, about the fact that love trusts, and about whether science can be trusted to clean up the messes caused by its own misuse.
After this reread, I feel like I have much more of a handle on what Hawthorne was seeking to do with this story, and can appreciate it even more! It still has unplumbed depths (for instance, I think there's a connection to Dante through Beatrice's name, but not having read Dante's poetry, I can't comment on that aspect); but I'm very glad to have interacted with the tale more deeply.
January 18, 2021
Q: Giovanni still found no better occupation than to look down into the garden beneath his window. (c)
Morale: careful with leisure, sometimes working might be a healthier alternative to looking down in the garderns.
I love Hawthorne. So, even with some things reading a bit on the unintendedly comical side, this still is 5 stars.
Q:
a voice as rich as a tropical sunset (c)
Q:
the privilege of overlooking this spot of lovely and luxuriant vegetation. It would serve, he said to himself, as a symbolic language, to keep him in communion with Nature. (c)
Q:
there were ugly recollections connected with his first glimpses of the beautiful girl; he could not quite forget the bouquet that withered in her grasp, and the insect that perished amid the sunny air, by no ostensible agency save the fragrance of her breath. (c) Now, that must have been some fragrant breath!
Q:
“There was an awful doom,” she continued...
“Was it a hard doom?” asked Giovanni (c) Robot talk))) Written way before robots were a concept.
Q:
Signor Giovanni, I will stake my life upon it, you are the subject of one of Rappaccini's experiments!(c)
Morale: careful with leisure, sometimes working might be a healthier alternative to looking down in the garderns.
I love Hawthorne. So, even with some things reading a bit on the unintendedly comical side, this still is 5 stars.
Q:
a voice as rich as a tropical sunset (c)
Q:
the privilege of overlooking this spot of lovely and luxuriant vegetation. It would serve, he said to himself, as a symbolic language, to keep him in communion with Nature. (c)
Q:
there were ugly recollections connected with his first glimpses of the beautiful girl; he could not quite forget the bouquet that withered in her grasp, and the insect that perished amid the sunny air, by no ostensible agency save the fragrance of her breath. (c) Now, that must have been some fragrant breath!
Q:
“There was an awful doom,” she continued...
“Was it a hard doom?” asked Giovanni (c) Robot talk))) Written way before robots were a concept.
Q:
Signor Giovanni, I will stake my life upon it, you are the subject of one of Rappaccini's experiments!(c)
February 6, 2017
4.5
Rappaccini's Daughter is a truly enchanting story. Set in Italy the story revolves around Giovanni and his fascination with the beautiful Beatrice, daughter of the mysterious Rappaccini, and the lush neighboring garden. The tale is a juxtaposition of the beauty of the natural world and the cold ambition of a scientist. The story was riveting, and Hawthorne's writing is superb.
Rappaccini's Daughter is a truly enchanting story. Set in Italy the story revolves around Giovanni and his fascination with the beautiful Beatrice, daughter of the mysterious Rappaccini, and the lush neighboring garden. The tale is a juxtaposition of the beauty of the natural world and the cold ambition of a scientist. The story was riveting, and Hawthorne's writing is superb.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 30, 2025
Giovanni Guasconti’s love for Rappaccini’s daughter, Beatrice, felt contrived but at the same time added story layers that left me loads to think about.
This is a sad and creepy tale, that is further heightened by blurring what is good and what is bad.
Whilst Nathaniel Hawthorne brings science into question with Rappaccini’s obsession, raises not only questions about the ethics of science but also a father’s responsibility towards his daughter.
These themes are explored through a romance that leads to the inciting incident that brings everything to a head.
This is a sad and creepy tale, that is further heightened by blurring what is good and what is bad.
Whilst Nathaniel Hawthorne brings science into question with Rappaccini’s obsession, raises not only questions about the ethics of science but also a father’s responsibility towards his daughter.
These themes are explored through a romance that leads to the inciting incident that brings everything to a head.
June 5, 2024
The English version can be found below.
-----------
German version:
Kurz zum Inhalt: Der zurückgezogen lebende Wissenschaftler Rappacini besitzt einen geheimen Garten mit selbstgezüchteten giftigen Blumen, mit denen er an einer neuen Form vom Medizin experimentiert. Außerdem hat eine ebenfalls zurückgezogen lebende Tochter. Die Handlung beginnt als der junge Student Giovanni seine neue Wohnung bezieht und aus seinem Fenster den geheimen Garten erblicken kann.
„Jeder Teil des Bodens war mit Pflanzen und Kräutern bevölkert, die, wenn auch weniger schön, doch Zeichen gewissenhafter Zuwendung aufzeigten; als ob alle ihre individuellen Werte besäßen, die dem wissenschaftsorientierten Geiste bekannt waren, der sie pflegte.“ (S. 77, In: Promethean Horrors; von mir übersetzt)
Positiv fand ich, die sprachlichen Formulierungen. Dabei stechen besonders die Beschreibung des Gartens und alles rundum die Blumen-Thematik hervor, welche sehr detailverliebt dargestellt werden und in welchen man große sprachliche Sorgfalt erkennen kann. Ich finde hier auch das Erzeugen des synästhetischen Wahrnehmens der Szenen durch den Leser absolut geglückt, sowie die Ambivalenz, die in das Blumen-Motiv eingebunden und durchdacht konzipiert ist.
Der Schluss ist spannend gestaltet, da zum einen feministische Züge auftreten, was ich 1844 wirklich fortschrittlich finde und mir auch im Hinblick auf die Thematik des verrückten Wissenschaftlers neu ist. Zum anderen werden gerade in den letzten Zeilen Rappacinis Motivationen erläutert, als alle Protagonisten anwesend sind (Beatrice, Giovanni und Baglioni). Dabei wird die Frage aufgeworfen, wer hier eigentlich gut und wer böse ist. Diese moralische Frage am Ende ist wirklich überraschend, da bis auf eine Szene nahe dem Schluss, eine deutliches Schwarz-Weiß-Schema zu erkennen war. Durch die neuen Aspekte ändert sich dann aber die ganze moralische Bewertung der Erzählung. Wirklich ein raffinierter Zug des Autors!
Negativ fand ich, dass gerade in Bezug auf die Handlung und die Erzeugung der unheimlich-rätselhaften Umstände die Zusammenhänge an manchen Stellen etwas künstlich erstellt wirken. Das Gefühl des Unheimlichen entsteht dadurch irgendwie nicht, also zumindest schafft es der Autor nicht, mich beim Lesen davon zu überzeugen. Mir ist die Handlung einfach etwas zu offensichtlich, also bis auf den Anfang und den Schluss, die ich beide sehr gelungen finde.
Daher gesamt: 4,0 🌟
----------
English version:
In brief: The reclusive scientist Rappacini has a secret garden with poisonous flowers that he cultivates on his own and with which he experiments on a new form of medicine. In addition, he has a daughter who also lives in isolation. The story begins when the young student Giovanni moves into his new apartment and can see the secret garden from his window.
„Every portion of the soil was peopled with plants and herbs, which if, if less beautiful, still bore tokens of assiduous care; as if all had their individual virtues, known to the scientific mind that fostered them.“ (p. 77, In: Promethean Horrors)
One positive thing I found was the linguistic formulations. Especially the description of the garden and everything related to the flower theme catches the eye. What is central here is the attention to detail and the high level of linguistic care that can be seen in this theme. I also find the synaesthetic design of the scenes absolutely successful here, as well as the ambivalence that is integrated and thoughtfully conceived into the flower motif.
The ending is exciting because, on the one hand, feminist aspects appear, which I find really progressive in 1844 and is also new to me with regard to the theme of the mad scientist.
On the other hand, Rappacini's motivations are explained in the final lines when all the protagonists are present (Beatrice, Giovanni and Baglioni). In doing so, the question is raised, who is actually good and who is evil. This moral question at the end is really surprising because, apart from one scene near the end, there was a clear black and white pattern. However, the new aspects then change the whole moral assessment of the story. A really clever move by the author!
On the negative side, I found that, particularly in relation to the plot and the creation of the eerie and mysterious circumstances, the connections seem somewhat artificial in many places. This somehow doesn't create a sense of the uncanny, so at least the author doesn't manage to convince me of this while reading. The plot is just a bit too obvious for me, except for the beginning and the end, which I think are both very successful.
Therefore overall: 4.0 🌟
-----------
German version:
Kurz zum Inhalt: Der zurückgezogen lebende Wissenschaftler Rappacini besitzt einen geheimen Garten mit selbstgezüchteten giftigen Blumen, mit denen er an einer neuen Form vom Medizin experimentiert. Außerdem hat eine ebenfalls zurückgezogen lebende Tochter. Die Handlung beginnt als der junge Student Giovanni seine neue Wohnung bezieht und aus seinem Fenster den geheimen Garten erblicken kann.
„Jeder Teil des Bodens war mit Pflanzen und Kräutern bevölkert, die, wenn auch weniger schön, doch Zeichen gewissenhafter Zuwendung aufzeigten; als ob alle ihre individuellen Werte besäßen, die dem wissenschaftsorientierten Geiste bekannt waren, der sie pflegte.“ (S. 77, In: Promethean Horrors; von mir übersetzt)
Positiv fand ich, die sprachlichen Formulierungen. Dabei stechen besonders die Beschreibung des Gartens und alles rundum die Blumen-Thematik hervor, welche sehr detailverliebt dargestellt werden und in welchen man große sprachliche Sorgfalt erkennen kann. Ich finde hier auch das Erzeugen des synästhetischen Wahrnehmens der Szenen durch den Leser absolut geglückt, sowie die Ambivalenz, die in das Blumen-Motiv eingebunden und durchdacht konzipiert ist.
Der Schluss ist spannend gestaltet, da zum einen feministische Züge auftreten, was ich 1844 wirklich fortschrittlich finde und mir auch im Hinblick auf die Thematik des verrückten Wissenschaftlers neu ist. Zum anderen werden gerade in den letzten Zeilen Rappacinis Motivationen erläutert, als alle Protagonisten anwesend sind (Beatrice, Giovanni und Baglioni). Dabei wird die Frage aufgeworfen, wer hier eigentlich gut und wer böse ist. Diese moralische Frage am Ende ist wirklich überraschend, da bis auf eine Szene nahe dem Schluss, eine deutliches Schwarz-Weiß-Schema zu erkennen war. Durch die neuen Aspekte ändert sich dann aber die ganze moralische Bewertung der Erzählung. Wirklich ein raffinierter Zug des Autors!
Negativ fand ich, dass gerade in Bezug auf die Handlung und die Erzeugung der unheimlich-rätselhaften Umstände die Zusammenhänge an manchen Stellen etwas künstlich erstellt wirken. Das Gefühl des Unheimlichen entsteht dadurch irgendwie nicht, also zumindest schafft es der Autor nicht, mich beim Lesen davon zu überzeugen. Mir ist die Handlung einfach etwas zu offensichtlich, also bis auf den Anfang und den Schluss, die ich beide sehr gelungen finde.
Daher gesamt: 4,0 🌟
----------
English version:
In brief: The reclusive scientist Rappacini has a secret garden with poisonous flowers that he cultivates on his own and with which he experiments on a new form of medicine. In addition, he has a daughter who also lives in isolation. The story begins when the young student Giovanni moves into his new apartment and can see the secret garden from his window.
„Every portion of the soil was peopled with plants and herbs, which if, if less beautiful, still bore tokens of assiduous care; as if all had their individual virtues, known to the scientific mind that fostered them.“ (p. 77, In: Promethean Horrors)
One positive thing I found was the linguistic formulations. Especially the description of the garden and everything related to the flower theme catches the eye. What is central here is the attention to detail and the high level of linguistic care that can be seen in this theme. I also find the synaesthetic design of the scenes absolutely successful here, as well as the ambivalence that is integrated and thoughtfully conceived into the flower motif.
The ending is exciting because, on the one hand, feminist aspects appear, which I find really progressive in 1844 and is also new to me with regard to the theme of the mad scientist.
On the other hand, Rappacini's motivations are explained in the final lines when all the protagonists are present (Beatrice, Giovanni and Baglioni). In doing so, the question is raised, who is actually good and who is evil. This moral question at the end is really surprising because, apart from one scene near the end, there was a clear black and white pattern. However, the new aspects then change the whole moral assessment of the story. A really clever move by the author!
On the negative side, I found that, particularly in relation to the plot and the creation of the eerie and mysterious circumstances, the connections seem somewhat artificial in many places. This somehow doesn't create a sense of the uncanny, so at least the author doesn't manage to convince me of this while reading. The plot is just a bit too obvious for me, except for the beginning and the end, which I think are both very successful.
Therefore overall: 4.0 🌟
February 28, 2022
If you like gothic horror and tragic love then this short story is for you!
ولی قلم هاوثورن عجب چیزیه.... * __ *
ولی قلم هاوثورن عجب چیزیه.... * __ *
September 15, 2020
Diese Erzählung aus dem Jahr 1844 eröffnet die Anthologie Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic. Andernfalls wäre ich wohl nie auf sie gestoßen bzw. hätte auch keine Lust gehabt, etwas von Hawthorne zu lesen, dessen Romane mich nicht mitgerissen haben.
So allerdings war ich vollkommen überrascht von ihrer literarischen Qualität.
So allerdings war ich vollkommen überrascht von ihrer literarischen Qualität.
October 7, 2015
A little slow at times, but Hawthorne's imagination is notable. The title story (one of three) is like a cross between Shakespeare and Poe. Another Beatrice story! Giovanni Guasconti is drawn into a toxic relationship with the beautiful Beatrice.Quoting words from the story, it is "a wild offspring of both love and horror that had each parent in it." Wonderful writing that lasts through the ages! The second story was a real treat,'Young Goodman Brown' is about a young man's internal battle as he resists being drawn into pagan rituals held in the dark forest outside Salem. It was a perfect story to start this Halloween season!
July 12, 2025
I can’t believe I forgot to review this! I read it last year. I just realized there’s a blank space where my review should be.
Of course I loved it. I wouldn’t give five stars to a book I didn’t love however it’s not fresh in my mind anymore. This is a short story or maybe I should call it a novella it’s really really good.
One of my closest Goodreads friends recommended it to me. I shan’t embarrass them by naming them, but you know who you are friend!
What I loved best about it was the visuals. I am a very very visual reader, and writer and thinker, and I see everything in colors and I really really love it when an author writes in colors.
Best of all is the subject which sort of mirrors the garden of Eden, except instead of Harmony, and Tranquility, this Garden is filled with poisonous and toxic plants!
Gorgeous and magnificent plants, floral, offerings, springing up all around, but very very dangerous floral offerings as well.
I can’t get into what happens in the garden except to say, what do you think would happen in a poisonous garden, amid thickets of greenery and luscious leaves sprouting to life in vivid yellows , in luscious pinks, in soaring blues, reaching out with their talons, waiting to launch their infections onto the poor SOB Who stumbles upon them, not knowing of course, that they’re toxic.
So yes, I was in a semi trance when I finished this, and I immediately rated it five stars, primarily because of the beauty of the vivid and colorful prose.
Like I said, I never heard of it before last year, but I’m so glad I’m able to add this to my read classics. I shan’t forget it anytime soon.
Of course I loved it. I wouldn’t give five stars to a book I didn’t love however it’s not fresh in my mind anymore. This is a short story or maybe I should call it a novella it’s really really good.
One of my closest Goodreads friends recommended it to me. I shan’t embarrass them by naming them, but you know who you are friend!
What I loved best about it was the visuals. I am a very very visual reader, and writer and thinker, and I see everything in colors and I really really love it when an author writes in colors.
Best of all is the subject which sort of mirrors the garden of Eden, except instead of Harmony, and Tranquility, this Garden is filled with poisonous and toxic plants!
Gorgeous and magnificent plants, floral, offerings, springing up all around, but very very dangerous floral offerings as well.
I can’t get into what happens in the garden except to say, what do you think would happen in a poisonous garden, amid thickets of greenery and luscious leaves sprouting to life in vivid yellows , in luscious pinks, in soaring blues, reaching out with their talons, waiting to launch their infections onto the poor SOB Who stumbles upon them, not knowing of course, that they’re toxic.
So yes, I was in a semi trance when I finished this, and I immediately rated it five stars, primarily because of the beauty of the vivid and colorful prose.
Like I said, I never heard of it before last year, but I’m so glad I’m able to add this to my read classics. I shan’t forget it anytime soon.
April 18, 2011
This is one of those lovely Hesperus editions. I have a number on my bookshelves; small, handy little volumes of authors' little known other works. This consists of three short stories by Hawthorne. The title story is a weird fairy tale of a beautiful but poison ridden garden cared for by an equally beautiful young woman who has imbibed the poisons and therefore is a perfect fly swat as all she need do is breathe on any thing and within a short while it withers or drops like a stone from the air. Other aspects of the story are concerning our judging on appearances, what can be our arrogant misuse of nature and the implications on love of trust and sacrifice. Odd but challenging. The second story is set in 'Scarlet Letter' country and puritans here frolic and ally themselves with the devil or do they? Is this another case of misreading and misunderstanding? Did the hero dream it all? Whatever is the truth, Hawthorne chillingly tells us that all is changed from that day on. The third and final story is wonderful and very funny. The description of a party gathered in a castle built in the air complete with all the guests that frequent such fancies and lovely images of the castle itself lit by moonlight gathered from the earth which would otherwise go unnoticed. Moonlight dappling a small pool in the middle of a wood; wasted in seclusion but gathered to be used for this imagined party. Three odd stories but each, being so short, being well worth the effort
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 21, 2019
Als Pflanzenliebhaberin im Allgemeinen und Liebhaberin von Giftpflanzen im Besonderen, konnte ich gar nicht anders als diese kleine Gothic Novelle genial zu finden.
August 27, 2022
I remember reading this in Mrs. Ramsey's 11th grade English class. Another great, if less popular, classic by Hawthorne. Surprisingly dark, too.
This is what I remember from 30+ years ago (no cheating, I promise!): a man who loves his little daughter terribly gives her tiny doses of different poisons, with the purpose of building up her immunity against the many dangers of the natural world. By the time she's older, she falls in love with a young man but she's now poisonous to the touch, and a brush of her skin can kill him. Whatever shall they do?!
**If that isn't really the plot, somebody let me know - thanks**
Man, I can't believe I forgot all about this little gem until tonight. This is one of Hawthorne's many excellent short stories and as much as I loved them as a teenager, I should invest in a quality comprehensive collection of them. Good stuff!
This is what I remember from 30+ years ago (no cheating, I promise!): a man who loves his little daughter terribly gives her tiny doses of different poisons, with the purpose of building up her immunity against the many dangers of the natural world. By the time she's older, she falls in love with a young man but she's now poisonous to the touch, and a brush of her skin can kill him. Whatever shall they do?!
**If that isn't really the plot, somebody let me know - thanks**
Man, I can't believe I forgot all about this little gem until tonight. This is one of Hawthorne's many excellent short stories and as much as I loved them as a teenager, I should invest in a quality comprehensive collection of them. Good stuff!
May 24, 2024
✶⋆.˚꩜ .ᐟ˙⋆✶ book review 𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ rappaccini's daughter ⟡ ✶⋆.˚꩜ .ᐟ˙⋆✶
rating ⋆⤷ 5/5 ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★ "What is this being? Beautiful shall I call her, or inexpressibly terrible?"
⋆｡‧˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧｡⋆ This was such a magical, dreamy, ethereal read that is as beautifully written as it is tragic. It is a very nature-oriented theme and a gothic short-story based in Italy. It follows a guy from Southern Italy who becomes perplexed by a young maiden who resides in her father's garden of poisonous flowers. Italy is my favorite country, so I took that as a sign that I'd love this. Anyway, it's very beautifully written and the author's style of description and prose is just. . . dreamy. Here are some (spoiler-free!) examples;
Flower and maiden were different, and yet the same, and fraught with some strange peril in either shape.
. . . as if all this beauty did but conceal a deadlier malice;
made him feel as if the fountain were an immortal spirit that sung its song unceasingly
See? Just very delicate, lovely prose. My favorite character was Beatrice Rappaccini, who is not the main character, but the focus of the novel. Our Main character, named Giovanni Guasconti (aren't the names just splendid?) is described in a way that makes me picture Timothee Chalamet. He is absolutely as dreamy as Beatrice. Beatrice is just. . . so complex and lovable, even though she doesn't speak too much in the novel. The whole concept of her character, I really adore, and she is so written for the lonely girls who fall in love easily and spend all of their days in nature.
⋆｡‧˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧｡⋆ This was my first work read of Hawthorne, and I'm very curious to read his other works. I love stories like this, that read the way this did, so magically and alluringly. I suggest this book a lot!!
⋆⭒˚.⋆𝜗𝜚 tags/themes short stories, italy, 1800s, classic, magical, fantasy, gothic, gothic literature, nature, garden, flowers, plants, poison, apothecary.
rating ⋆⤷ 5/5 ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★ "What is this being? Beautiful shall I call her, or inexpressibly terrible?"
⋆｡‧˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧｡⋆ This was such a magical, dreamy, ethereal read that is as beautifully written as it is tragic. It is a very nature-oriented theme and a gothic short-story based in Italy. It follows a guy from Southern Italy who becomes perplexed by a young maiden who resides in her father's garden of poisonous flowers. Italy is my favorite country, so I took that as a sign that I'd love this. Anyway, it's very beautifully written and the author's style of description and prose is just. . . dreamy. Here are some (spoiler-free!) examples;
Flower and maiden were different, and yet the same, and fraught with some strange peril in either shape.
. . . as if all this beauty did but conceal a deadlier malice;
made him feel as if the fountain were an immortal spirit that sung its song unceasingly
See? Just very delicate, lovely prose. My favorite character was Beatrice Rappaccini, who is not the main character, but the focus of the novel. Our Main character, named Giovanni Guasconti (aren't the names just splendid?) is described in a way that makes me picture Timothee Chalamet. He is absolutely as dreamy as Beatrice. Beatrice is just. . . so complex and lovable, even though she doesn't speak too much in the novel. The whole concept of her character, I really adore, and she is so written for the lonely girls who fall in love easily and spend all of their days in nature.
⋆｡‧˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧｡⋆ This was my first work read of Hawthorne, and I'm very curious to read his other works. I love stories like this, that read the way this did, so magically and alluringly. I suggest this book a lot!!
⋆⭒˚.⋆𝜗𝜚 tags/themes short stories, italy, 1800s, classic, magical, fantasy, gothic, gothic literature, nature, garden, flowers, plants, poison, apothecary.
December 5, 2016
The Garden of Eden, Dante's Inferno,Shakspeare's poetic writing plus Poe's tragedy
Rappaccini's Daughter tells the story of a young man named Giovanni who comes to Padua to pursue a University education and takes a room in an old mansion overlooking a beautiful garden ,where he spies the daugther of Signor Giacomo Rappaccini, a doctor who distils the plants from his garden into medicines , as strikingly beautiful as the plants around her, ,Rappaccini's daughter like Dante's beloved;is named Beatrice.
“There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger.”
in addition to Chekhov's short stories this one is also one of the best ones i've read . It was strange,dark,magical,tragic,thrilling , haunting and full of symbolism . I admired the writing and the descriptions,the narration was flawless .I will surely opt for more titles by Nathaniel Hawthorne ,this one is so unique and genius. Totally gonna re-read it .
Rappaccini's Daughter tells the story of a young man named Giovanni who comes to Padua to pursue a University education and takes a room in an old mansion overlooking a beautiful garden ,where he spies the daugther of Signor Giacomo Rappaccini, a doctor who distils the plants from his garden into medicines , as strikingly beautiful as the plants around her, ,Rappaccini's daughter like Dante's beloved;is named Beatrice.
“There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger.”
in addition to Chekhov's short stories this one is also one of the best ones i've read . It was strange,dark,magical,tragic,thrilling , haunting and full of symbolism . I admired the writing and the descriptions,the narration was flawless .I will surely opt for more titles by Nathaniel Hawthorne ,this one is so unique and genius. Totally gonna re-read it .
December 26, 2020
“There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger.”
Such a weird story. A poison princess ends up dying herself.
Such a weird story. A poison princess ends up dying herself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 15, 2021
İnanılmaz bir öykü. Nefes kesen bir ritim. Farklı bir Romeo Juliette yorumu. Çok etkilendim.
April 4, 2015
While I am not in the habit of reviewing individual short stories, this is almost novella-length anyway and is one of my all-time favorites. Someone should publish it in a lavish illustrated edition: I imagine mixed media, photos of floral tendrils and marble ruins that frame sketchier figure drawing and landscapes, probably in oil pastels. Alternately, I could see puppets being involved.
The story is prefaced by a self-parodic author biography, in which Hawthorne, in a fit of Romantic irony, Frenchifies himself as M. de l’Aubépine, emphasizing his outsider's perspective on an America too controlled by Puritan and mercantile values to reward his dreamy and proto-decadent sensibility. I will spare the reader my identification with Hawthorne's difficulties—well, almost, but the following so well describes one of my own problems that I have to quote it:
When Hawthorne says that the Transcendentalists "under one name or another, have their share in all the current literature of the world," I believe he means to identify them with literary avant-gardes in general. It is as difficult today as it was in Hawthorne's time, in my experience, to find a publisher for fiction that neither announces a radical intention on its surface (a gesture I find facile and overdone—how many more novels do we need with no paragraph breaks or with numbered sections à la Wittgenstein?) nor provides all the traditional satisfactions of the mainstream and popular (which would of course be a far too conventional thing to do for any writer interested in the possibilities of form).
The words "Aubépine" and "Hawthorne" both refer to a flowering plant. Hawthorne himself added the "w" (for "writer"?) to his family name, granting himself a floral appellation in an attempt to expiate the Puritanical crimes against nature and pleasure committed by the witch-hunting Hathornes.
In this particular tale, flowers are at issue: set in Renaissance Italy, "Rappaccini's Daughter" tells of a young man named Giovanni who comes to Padua to study and takes an apartment overlooking a garden where he spies a beautiful maiden named, like Dante's beloved, Beatrice. Alas, as the tale unfolds, we learn that Beatrice has been turned by her scientist father into an ambulatory poison flower, contaminating Giovanni through his very love of her. Aubépine, the self-mocking preface tells us, has "an inveterate love of allegory," and this tale's allegory seems clear enough at first: men, whether Dante or Rappaccini, make women into angels or demons, pure flowers or poison ones, and then hold them responsible for it despite their lack of control in the matter. As Beatrice tells Giovanni at the conclusion, "' Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?'" She's not wrong: his obsessive voyeurism and idealism draws him into a relationship with her, and his refusal to countenance anything less than spiritually beatified in that relation causes him to fall prey to her father's machinations and then to blame her for the poison with which the old scientist has corrupted her. Allegorically, then, we have a prophetically feminist statement from an author better remembered for complaining about the female authors who were his more successful rivals.
I'm not sure, though, that finding a satisfyingly "progressive" thesis is the only way to read this strange story. First of all, it should be admitted that the story is strange; apparently based on an ancient tale that Hawthorne found in Burton, its depiction of a mad scientist turning his daughter into a super-villain was pulpy enough to inspire both DC and Marvel comics to create characters based on Beatrice, according to Wikipedia. And Hawthorne, perhaps more like both Giovanni (the voyeur of the garden) and Rappaccini (the master of the garden) than he lets on, enjoys himself amid the floral perfumes, creating an aesthetic and sensory prose that in its near opiation looks forward to Pater, Huysmans, and Wilde:
The story is prefaced by a self-parodic author biography, in which Hawthorne, in a fit of Romantic irony, Frenchifies himself as M. de l’Aubépine, emphasizing his outsider's perspective on an America too controlled by Puritan and mercantile values to reward his dreamy and proto-decadent sensibility. I will spare the reader my identification with Hawthorne's difficulties—well, almost, but the following so well describes one of my own problems that I have to quote it:
As a writer, he seems to occupy an unfortunate position between the Transcendentalists (who, under one name or another, have their share in all the current literature of the world) and the great body of pen-and-ink men who address the intellect and sympathies of the multitude. If not too refined, at all events too remote, too shadowy, and unsubstantial in his modes of development to suit the taste of the latter class, and yet too popular to satisfy the spiritual or metaphysical requisitions of the former, he must necessarily find himself without an audience, except here and there an individual or possibly an isolated clique.
When Hawthorne says that the Transcendentalists "under one name or another, have their share in all the current literature of the world," I believe he means to identify them with literary avant-gardes in general. It is as difficult today as it was in Hawthorne's time, in my experience, to find a publisher for fiction that neither announces a radical intention on its surface (a gesture I find facile and overdone—how many more novels do we need with no paragraph breaks or with numbered sections à la Wittgenstein?) nor provides all the traditional satisfactions of the mainstream and popular (which would of course be a far too conventional thing to do for any writer interested in the possibilities of form).
The words "Aubépine" and "Hawthorne" both refer to a flowering plant. Hawthorne himself added the "w" (for "writer"?) to his family name, granting himself a floral appellation in an attempt to expiate the Puritanical crimes against nature and pleasure committed by the witch-hunting Hathornes.
In this particular tale, flowers are at issue: set in Renaissance Italy, "Rappaccini's Daughter" tells of a young man named Giovanni who comes to Padua to study and takes an apartment overlooking a garden where he spies a beautiful maiden named, like Dante's beloved, Beatrice. Alas, as the tale unfolds, we learn that Beatrice has been turned by her scientist father into an ambulatory poison flower, contaminating Giovanni through his very love of her. Aubépine, the self-mocking preface tells us, has "an inveterate love of allegory," and this tale's allegory seems clear enough at first: men, whether Dante or Rappaccini, make women into angels or demons, pure flowers or poison ones, and then hold them responsible for it despite their lack of control in the matter. As Beatrice tells Giovanni at the conclusion, "' Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?'" She's not wrong: his obsessive voyeurism and idealism draws him into a relationship with her, and his refusal to countenance anything less than spiritually beatified in that relation causes him to fall prey to her father's machinations and then to blame her for the poison with which the old scientist has corrupted her. Allegorically, then, we have a prophetically feminist statement from an author better remembered for complaining about the female authors who were his more successful rivals.
I'm not sure, though, that finding a satisfyingly "progressive" thesis is the only way to read this strange story. First of all, it should be admitted that the story is strange; apparently based on an ancient tale that Hawthorne found in Burton, its depiction of a mad scientist turning his daughter into a super-villain was pulpy enough to inspire both DC and Marvel comics to create characters based on Beatrice, according to Wikipedia. And Hawthorne, perhaps more like both Giovanni (the voyeur of the garden) and Rappaccini (the master of the garden) than he lets on, enjoys himself amid the floral perfumes, creating an aesthetic and sensory prose that in its near opiation looks forward to Pater, Huysmans, and Wilde:
Giovanni still found no better occupation than to look down into the garden beneath his window. From its appearance, he judged it to be one of those botanic gardens which were of earlier date in Padua than elsewhere in Italy or in the world. Or, not improbably, it might once have been the pleasure-place of an opulent family; for there was the ruin of a marble fountain in the centre, sculptured with rare art, but so wofully shattered that it was impossible to trace the original design from the chaos of remaining fragments. The water, however, continued to gush and sparkle into the sunbeams as cheerfully as ever. A little gurgling sound ascended to the young man’s window, and made him feel as if the fountain were an immortal spirit that sung its song unceasingly and without heeding the vicissitudes around it, while one century imbodied it in marble and another scattered the perishable garniture on the soil. All about the pool into which the water subsided grew various plants, that seemed to require a plentiful supply of moisture for the nourishment of gigantic leaves, and, in some instances, flowers gorgeously magnificent. There was one shrub in particular, set in a marble vase in the midst of the pool, that bore a profusion of purple blossoms, each of which had the lustre and richness of a gem; and the whole together made a show so resplendent that it seemed enough to illuminate the garden, even had there been no sunshine. Every portion of the soil was peopled with plants and herbs, which, if less beautiful, still bore tokens of assiduous care, as if all had their individual virtues, known to the scientific mind that fostered them. Some were placed in urns, rich with old carving, and others in common garden pots; some crept serpent-like along the ground or climbed on high, using whatever means of ascent was offered them. One plant had wreathed itself round a statue of Vertumnus, which was thus quite veiled and shrouded in a drapery of hanging foliage, so happily arranged that it might have served a sculptor for a study.As in so much of Hawthorne's writing, an ineliminable Puritan sense of guilt runs under the aesthetic pleasure, creating a powerful sense of irony. The story is both a richly lurid tale of sin and a self-critique—recalling Calvinist self-examination and anticipating the postmodern progressivism that is that Calvinism's legacy—for writing such a wicked thing at all.
October 8, 2015
DO YOU LIKE GOTHIC HORROR WITH HINTS OF MYTHOLOGY?
DO YOU ENJOY TRAGIC LOVE STORIES?
If yes, then this short story is for you.
Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the best short stories I’ve read in ages. The prose is beautiful, haunting and magical; it stays with you for a long time even after the story is done. I was fascinated by the descriptions of the lush gardens, the comparisons of flowers to gems and water to diamonds.
Seriously, can anyone resist that flowery prose? I, for one, most definitely cannot!
I can quite easily picture the setting: Giovanni, a young medical student in medieval Padua, Italy, lodged in the strange quarters of the elusive botanist, Dr. Rappaccini, with no-one for company save the toothless old dame, Lisabetta and the beautiful, extraordinarily perfect daughter, Beatrice.
But alas, what seems to be perfect never is so. Beatrice captures Giovanni’s fancy almost immediately. Her slender visage, intoxicating perfume and exquisite beauty seem too unnatural; Giovanni finds himself unearthing sinister explanations for the events he witnessed in the garden.
Is her beauty real? Is her perfection tangible? Or is it the result of something else? Could it perhaps be the result of the inhumane experiments of the half-crazed botanist?
Before he can stop himself, Giovanni finds himself in equal awe and fear of the mysterious, yet innocent Beatrice. She’s kind and understanding and attractive, and as human as can be. Yet, insects die mysteriously around her. Fresh flowers wither and droop in her presence. The poisons produced by the ‘evil’ botanist have imbibed themselves within her.
Here the reader sympathizes with Giovanni’s internal conflict; the several ominous suspicions ringing in his own head, the well-meaning warnings given to him by his father’s close aide, Dr. Baglioni, a medical man himself, but to no avail.
As the story progresses, I think it’s possible to predict the outcome; yet, I found myself desperately hoping for an alternative ending, but unfortunately had to resign myself to what was going to happen.
The author indicates the selfishness of the three men here: Dr. Rappaccini in his obsessive experimentation, Giovanni for his lust and curiosity and Dr. Baglioni for his professional rivalry towards Rappaccini.
In trying to ‘protect’ his beautiful daughter from the evils of the world, Rappaccini turns her into a poisonous, ambulant flower; only to be feared, never to be loved. He also turns Giovanni, hoping that his daughter would find someone to live with forever, indirectly condemning them both to an accursed life. Beatrice’s body might have been poisonous, but her heart was as human as Giovanni’s. Maybe even more so. As she tells him in the end,
Giovanni too, in spite of claiming to be in love with Beatrice, is quick to jump to hasty conclusions, demonstrating that his love for her was ridden with doubt and mistrust. Finally, Dr. Baglioni, who in the name of saving an innocent soul from the clutches of a mad scientist, ends up taking the life of another.
There are several references to other works of literature, notably, Dante’s Divine Comedy, wherein, Beatrice, the love of Dante’s life died while still young and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Rappaccini’s garden is referred to as the Eden of the present world, so I’m thinking there might be allusions to Rappaccini being Adam and Beatrice Eve.
Another interesting fact is the traditional story of a poisonous maiden being derived from Indian Mythology (apparently mentioned in Chanakya’s Arthashastra too) which I was happy to discover. The Visha Kanyas were young women used as assassins against powerful enemies, notably Alexander the Great, during the Mauryan empire. Their blood was supposed to be made poisonous, by exposing them to low intensity poisons from a very young age. Any contact would be lethal to other humans.
So, ultimately I enjoyed this piece of art considerably, as well as the tiny amount of research that it led me to.
ALL LOVERS OF LITERATURE OUT THERE: YOU WILL LOVE THIS.
DO YOU ENJOY TRAGIC LOVE STORIES?
If yes, then this short story is for you.
Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the best short stories I’ve read in ages. The prose is beautiful, haunting and magical; it stays with you for a long time even after the story is done. I was fascinated by the descriptions of the lush gardens, the comparisons of flowers to gems and water to diamonds.
‘There was one shrub in particular, set in a marble vase in the midst of the pool, that bore a profusion of purple blossoms, each of which had the luster and richness of a gem; and the whole together made a show so resplendent that it seemed enough to illuminate the garden, even had there been no sunshine.
Seriously, can anyone resist that flowery prose? I, for one, most definitely cannot!
I can quite easily picture the setting: Giovanni, a young medical student in medieval Padua, Italy, lodged in the strange quarters of the elusive botanist, Dr. Rappaccini, with no-one for company save the toothless old dame, Lisabetta and the beautiful, extraordinarily perfect daughter, Beatrice.
But alas, what seems to be perfect never is so. Beatrice captures Giovanni’s fancy almost immediately. Her slender visage, intoxicating perfume and exquisite beauty seem too unnatural; Giovanni finds himself unearthing sinister explanations for the events he witnessed in the garden.
‘Nor did he fail to observe, or imagine, an analogy between the beautiful girl and the gorgeous shrub that hung its gem-like flowers over the fountain; a resemblance which Beatrice seemed to have indulged a fantastic humor in heightening, both by the arrangement of her dress and the selection of its hues. Approaching the shrub, she threw open her arms, as with a passionate ardor, and drew its branches into an intimate embrace; so intimate, that her features were hidden in its leafy bosom and her glistening ringlets all intermingled with the flowers.’
Is her beauty real? Is her perfection tangible? Or is it the result of something else? Could it perhaps be the result of the inhumane experiments of the half-crazed botanist?
‘… Giovanni, at his lofty window, rubbed his eyes, and almost doubted whether it were a girl tending her favorite flower, or one sister performing the duties of affection to another.’
Before he can stop himself, Giovanni finds himself in equal awe and fear of the mysterious, yet innocent Beatrice. She’s kind and understanding and attractive, and as human as can be. Yet, insects die mysteriously around her. Fresh flowers wither and droop in her presence. The poisons produced by the ‘evil’ botanist have imbibed themselves within her.
‘… in his right hand, the very hand which Beatrice had grasped in her own, when he was on the point of plucking one of the gem-like flowers. On the back of that hand there was now a purple print; like that of four small fingers, and the likeness of a slender thumb upon his wrist.’
Here the reader sympathizes with Giovanni’s internal conflict; the several ominous suspicions ringing in his own head, the well-meaning warnings given to him by his father’s close aide, Dr. Baglioni, a medical man himself, but to no avail.
‘Blessed are all simple emotions, be they dark or bright! It is the lurid intermixture of the two that produces the illuminating blaze of the infernal regions.’
As the story progresses, I think it’s possible to predict the outcome; yet, I found myself desperately hoping for an alternative ending, but unfortunately had to resign myself to what was going to happen.
The author indicates the selfishness of the three men here: Dr. Rappaccini in his obsessive experimentation, Giovanni for his lust and curiosity and Dr. Baglioni for his professional rivalry towards Rappaccini.
In trying to ‘protect’ his beautiful daughter from the evils of the world, Rappaccini turns her into a poisonous, ambulant flower; only to be feared, never to be loved. He also turns Giovanni, hoping that his daughter would find someone to live with forever, indirectly condemning them both to an accursed life. Beatrice’s body might have been poisonous, but her heart was as human as Giovanni’s. Maybe even more so. As she tells him in the end,
“Thy words of hatred are lead within my heart- but they too will fall away as I ascend. Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?”
Giovanni too, in spite of claiming to be in love with Beatrice, is quick to jump to hasty conclusions, demonstrating that his love for her was ridden with doubt and mistrust. Finally, Dr. Baglioni, who in the name of saving an innocent soul from the clutches of a mad scientist, ends up taking the life of another.
There are several references to other works of literature, notably, Dante’s Divine Comedy, wherein, Beatrice, the love of Dante’s life died while still young and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Rappaccini’s garden is referred to as the Eden of the present world, so I’m thinking there might be allusions to Rappaccini being Adam and Beatrice Eve.
Another interesting fact is the traditional story of a poisonous maiden being derived from Indian Mythology (apparently mentioned in Chanakya’s Arthashastra too) which I was happy to discover. The Visha Kanyas were young women used as assassins against powerful enemies, notably Alexander the Great, during the Mauryan empire. Their blood was supposed to be made poisonous, by exposing them to low intensity poisons from a very young age. Any contact would be lethal to other humans.
So, ultimately I enjoyed this piece of art considerably, as well as the tiny amount of research that it led me to.
ALL LOVERS OF LITERATURE OUT THERE: YOU WILL LOVE THIS.
May 29, 2022
Υπέροχο μικρό διαμαντακι !!
March 8, 2019
Πολύ όμορφο διήγημα της ρομαντικής περιόδου!
October 27, 2013
One of Hawthorne's classic stories, I read this for the first time in high school. Great for Halloween time!
Listened on Forgotten Classics (episode 1) and episode 2).
Listened on Forgotten Classics (episode 1) and episode 2).
July 17, 2025
Un racconto gotico classico deliziosamente inquietante e suggestivo. La storia ha un nota romantica decadente e alcuni elementi fantascientifici che si mischiano al reale. La scrittura sfoggia uno stile fiabesco, poetico ed elegante, davvero piacevole. 4,5★
Consiglio tantissimo l’edizione in cui l’ho letto io (Rebelle edizioni) perché è un’edizione di pregio, in formato grande, con copertina rigida illustrata. Anche gli interni del libro sono totalmente illustrati (da Marco Calvi). Non si tratta di qualche illustrazione qua e là, il libro è INTERAMENTE illustrato (in ogni pagina).
La differenza rispetto ad un’edizione tradizione è notevole, la lettura ne guadagna tantissimo, ne amplifica le suggestioni, diventa un’esperienza sensoriale.
Imperdibile per gli amanti della letteratura gotica!
Consiglio tantissimo l’edizione in cui l’ho letto io (Rebelle edizioni) perché è un’edizione di pregio, in formato grande, con copertina rigida illustrata. Anche gli interni del libro sono totalmente illustrati (da Marco Calvi). Non si tratta di qualche illustrazione qua e là, il libro è INTERAMENTE illustrato (in ogni pagina).
La differenza rispetto ad un’edizione tradizione è notevole, la lettura ne guadagna tantissimo, ne amplifica le suggestioni, diventa un’esperienza sensoriale.
Imperdibile per gli amanti della letteratura gotica!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 547 reviews