Rappaccini's daughter

More about Rappaccini's daughter

'Rappaccini's Daughter' is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that I read years ago and never forgot. In 16th century Padua, Italy, a young man, Giovanni Guasconti, comes to study. His rooms overlook a luxurious garden within the walls of the home of Giacomo Rappaccini and his daughter, Beatrice. Giacomo is famous for his study of poisonous plants, but it is Beatrice that Giovanni watches tend the garden. She calls the plants and flowers her 'sisters' and suffers no ill effect from their poison. Giovanni soon notices that any living thing which comes in contact with Beatrice or the flowers, withers and dies: a lizard, a butterfly, the bouquet of flowers he throws to her from his window. But he doubts what he sees. His landlady shows him a secret entrance to the garden, and Giovanni and Beatrice begin spending time together, never touching. Giovanni becomes more and more obsessed with determining the truth about Beatrice who is so clearly innocent, yet dangerous. And one day, as he prepares to take her another bouquet, he sees himself in the mirror and notices that the flowers he is holding are beginning to wither and die. (I won't reveal the ending here. It was written in the mid 1800s, so you can count on a sad ending, but you can read the whole story for free here: https://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/152/)