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Morella (short Story)
"Morella" is a short story in the Gothic horror genre by 19th-century American author and critic Edgar Allan Poe. Plot summary An unnamed narrator marries Morella, a woman with great scholarly knowledge who delves into studies of the German philosophers Fichte and Schelling, dealing with the question of identity. Morella spends her time in bed reading and teaching her husband. Realizing her physical deterioration, her husband, the narrator, becomes frightened and wishes for his wife's death and eternal peace. Eventually, Morella dies in childbirth proclaiming: "I am dying. But within me is a pledge of that affection... which thou didst feel for me, Morella. And when my spirit departs shall the child live." As the daughter gets older the narrator notices she bears an uncanny resemblance to her mother, but he refuses to give the child a name. By her tenth birthday the resemblance to Morella is frightening. Her father decides to have her baptized to release any evil from her, but t ...
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WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. F ...
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Vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited while they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world; the term ''vampire'' was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in the Balkans and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Local variants in Eastern Europe were also known by different names, such as '' shtriga'' in Albania, '' vrykolakas'' in Greece and '' strigoi'' in Romania. In modern times, the v ...
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Burton's Gentleman's Magazine
''Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and American Monthly Review'' (sometimes ''...and Monthly American Review'' or, more simply, ''Burton's Magazine''), was a literary publication published in Philadelphia from 1837 to 1840. Its founder was William Evans Burton, an English-born immigrant to the United States who also managed a theatre and was a minor actor. Edgar Allan Poe was an editor and contributor in 1839–40. Overview William Evans Burton teamed with publisher Charles Alexander to produce a magazine inspired by the successful''The Gentleman's Magazine'' in London. To offset the financial adversity amidst the Panic of 1837, they focused on local authors and nationalist themes, signaled in part by a frontispiece with both patriotic and gentlemanly imagery as well as an illustration of Benjamin Franklin. Burton hoped to create a magazine that would be "worthy of a place upon every parlour table of every gentleman in the United States".Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z''. Ne ...
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1839 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1839. Events *January 21 – Åbo Svenska Teater in Åbo (Turku), Finland, opens with a performance of the Swedish-language play ''Gubben i Bergsbygden''. *March – W. Harrison Ainsworth takes over editorship of ''Bentley's Miscellany'' from Charles Dickens at the end of the year. Until April serializations of their respective novels ''Jack Sheppard (novel), Jack Sheppard'' and ''Oliver Twist'' have been running simultaneously in the magazine. *April – Washington Irving begins contributing regularly to ''The Knickerbocker'', and will publish thirty new pieces in the magazine through March 1841 in literature, 1841 — including "The Creole Village," where he coins the phrase "the almighty dollar". *May 31 – An important British constitutional case of ''Stockdale v Hansard'' begins when publisher John Joseph Stockdale sues for libel after John Roberton (1776), John Roberton's pseudo-medical work ''O ...
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1835 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1835. Events *January 21 – Abolitionist Susan Paul officiates at a meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS) in Boston. Later in the year, her ''Memoir of James Jackson'' becomes the earliest-known published narrative by an African-American woman and the first account documenting the life of a free black child in the United States. * February 17 – William Colenso prints the first book in New Zealand, a translation into the Māori language of the Epistle to the Philippians and Epistle to the Ephesians. *c. early March – John Stuart Mill's maid accidentally burns the unpublished first volume manuscript of Thomas Carlyle's '' The French Revolution: A History''. * May 8 – The first of Hans Christian Andersen's 168 fantastic stories are published as '' Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection'' (''Eventyr, fortalte for Børn'') by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, including " T ...
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The Fall Of The House Of Usher
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839 in ''Burton's Gentleman's Magazine'', then included in the collection ''Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque'' in 1840. The short story, a work of Gothic horror, Gothic fiction, includes themes of madness, family, isolation, and metaphysical identities. Plot The story begins with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a distant part of the country, complaining of an illness and asking for his help. As he arrives, the narrator notices a thin crack extending from the roof, down the front of the house and into the adjacent Tarn (lake), tarn, or lake. It is revealed that Roderick's sister, Madeline, is also ill and falls into catalepsy, cataleptic, deathlike trances. Roderick and Madeline are the only remaining members of the Usher family. The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings and attempts ...
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Eleonora (short Story)
"Eleonora" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842 in Philadelphia in the literary annual ''The Gift''. It is often regarded as somewhat autobiographical and has a relatively "happy" ending. Plot summary The story follows an unnamed narrator who lives with his cousin and aunt in "The Valley of the Many-Colored Grass", an idyllic paradise full of fragrant flowers, fantastic trees, and a "River of Silence". It remains untrodden by the footsteps of strangers and so they live isolated but happy. After living like this for fifteen years, "Love entered" the hearts of the narrator and his cousin Eleonora. The valley reflected the beauty of their young love: Eleonora, however, was sick — "made perfect in loveliness only to die". She does not fear death, but fears that the narrator will leave the valley after her death and transfer his love to someone else. The narrator emotionally vows to her, with "the Mighty Ruler of the Universe" as his witness, to never bin ...
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Ligeia
"Ligeia" () is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Worm", and quotes lines attributed to Joseph Glanvill (which suggest that life is sustainable only through willpower) shortly before dying. After her death, the narrator marries the Lady Rowena. Rowena becomes ill and she dies as well. The distraught narrator stays with her body overnight and watches as Rowena slowly comes back from the dead – though she has transformed into Ligeia. The story may be the narrator's opium-induced hallucination and there is debate whether the story was a satire. After the story's first publication in '' The American Museum'', it was heavily revised and reprinted throughout Poe's life. Plot summary The story is told by an unnamed narrator who describes the qualities of Ligeia: a beautiful, passionate and intel ...
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Berenice (short Story)
"Berenice" is a short horror story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the ''Southern Literary Messenger'' in 1835. Egaeus, who is preparing to marry his cousin Berenice, tends to fall into periods of intense focus, during which he seems to separate himself from the outside world. Berenice begins to deteriorate from an unnamed disease until only her teeth remain healthy. Egaeus obsesses over them. When Berenice is buried, he continues to contemplate her teeth. One day, he awakens with an uneasy feeling from a trance-like state and hears screams. A servant reports that Berenice's grave has been disturbed, and she is still alive. Beside Egaeus is a shovel, a poem about "visiting the grave of my beloved", and a box containing 32 teeth. Contemporary readers were horrified by the story's violence and complained to the editor of the ''Messenger''. Although Poe later published a self-censored version of the work, he believed the story should be judged solely by how man ...
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Black Magic
Black magic, also known as dark magic, has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes, specifically the seven magical arts prohibited by canon law, as expounded by Johannes Hartlieb in 1456. During his period of scholarship, A. E. Waite provided a comprehensive account of black magic practices, rituals and traditions in ''The Book of Ceremonial Magic'' (1911). It is also sometimes referred to as the "left-hand path". In modern times, some find that the definition of black magic has been convoluted by people who define magic or ritualistic practices that they disapprove of as black magic. The seven ''Artes prohibitae'' of black magic The seven ''artes prohibitae'' or ''artes magicae'', arts prohibited by canon law, as expounded by Johannes Hartlieb in 1456, their sevenfold partition reflecting that of the artes liberales and artes mechanicae, were: # necromancy # geomancy # hydromancy #aeromancy #pyromancy #chiromancy ...
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Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of the official figures. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia at the foot of the Little Carpathians, occupying both banks of the River Danube and the left bank of the River Morava. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two sovereign states. The city's history has been influenced by people of many nations and religions, including Austrians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Romani, Serbs and Slovaks. It was the coronation site and legislative center and capital of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1536 to 1783; eleven Hungarian kings and eight queens were crowned in St Martin's Cathedral. Most Hungarian parliament assemblies were held here from the 17th century until the Hungarian Re ...
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Atropa Belladonna
''Atropa belladonna'', commonly known as belladonna or deadly nightshade, is a toxic perennial herbaceous plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae, which also includes tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant (aubergine). It is native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. Its distribution extends from Great Britain in the west to western Ukraine and the Iranian province of Gilan in the east. It is also naturalised or introduced in some parts of Canada and the United States. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic when ingested, containing tropane alkaloids. These toxins include atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine, which cause delirium and hallucinations, and are also used as pharmaceutical anticholinergics. Tropane alkaloids are of common occurrence not only in the Old World tribes Hyoscyameae (to which the genus Atropa belongs) and Mandragoreae, but also in the New World tribe Datureae - all of which belong to the subfamily Solanoideae of the plant f ...
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