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Part fairy tale, part Gothic horror story, Rappaccini’s Daughter is an inspired tale of creation and control. It is published here with two additional short stories by Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown and A Select Party. With a Foreword by Simon Schama.

Giovanni Guasconti, a student at the University of Padua, is enchanted to discover a nearby garden of the most exquisite beauty. In it abides a young woman, perhaps the most beautiful Giovanni has ever seen. Yet as he looks out from an upstairs window, he soon learns that the garden—and the matchless Beatrice—are not the work of Mother Nature, but rather the result of a monstrous abomination of creativity. An ingenious biblical parody, the tale’s fantastical quality is brilliantly echoed in the two accompanying short stories: Young Goodman Brown and A Select Party. Read together, they display all Hawthorne’s gifts as a storyteller. Novelist, essayist, and moralist, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) is one of America’s greatest writers, best known for his remarkable novel The Scarlet Letter.

Hardy's 1880 tale finds two longtime friends looking back on their lives, which, despite their similar backgrounds, couldn't be more different. One has been lucky in business but has a loveless marriage; the other doesn't have a nickel to his name but has been graced with the riches of a loving wife and family. Dating back to 1844, Rappaccini's Daughter is part romance and part Gothic horror story. A student discovers a hidden garden and a beautiful woman who seemingly lives in it but soon learns that both are not what they seem. This edition also includes Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown and A Select Party. For literature collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.