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Rappaccini's Daughter
"Rappaccini's Daughter" is a Gothic short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne first published in the December 1844 issue of ''The United States Magazine and Democratic Review'' in New York, and later in various collections. It is about Giacomo Rappaccini, a medical researcher in Padua who grows a garden of poisonous plants. He brings up his daughter to tend the plants, and she becomes resistant to the poisons, but in the process she herself becomes poisonous to others. The traditional story of a poisonous maiden has been traced back to India, and Hawthorne's version has been adopted in contemporary works. Plot summary The story is set in Padua, Italy, in a distant and unspecified past, possibly in the sixteenth century, after the Paduan Botanical Garden had been founded.Survey of Criticism of "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is an affinity group for contributors with shared goals within the Wikimedia movement. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within Wikimedia project, sibling 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 Magazine, 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 outsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Italy
Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the Historical region, historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Kingdom of Naples, Naples and Kingdom of Sicily, Sicily (officially denominated as one entity and , i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on the other side of Strait of Messina, the Strait" and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest List of historical states of Italy, pre-unitarian state, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The island of Sardinia, which was not part of the aforementioned polity and had been under the rule of the Alps, Alpine House of Savoy, which would eventually annex the Bourbons' southern Italian kingdom altogether, is nonetheless often subsumed into the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satan
Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or 'evil inclination'. In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as a fallen angel or jinn who has rebelled against God, who nevertheless allows him temporary power over the fallen world and a host of demons. In the Quran, Iblis (Shaitan), the leader of the devils (''shayāṭīn''), is made of fire and was cast out of Heaven because he refused to bow before the newly created Adam. He incites humans to sin by infecting their minds with ''waswās'' ('evil suggestions'). A figure known as ''ha-satan'' ("the satan") first appears in the Hebrew Bible as a heavenly prosecutor, subordinate to Yahweh (God); he prosecutes the nation of Judah in the heavenly court and tests the loyalty of Yahweh's followers. During the intertestamental period, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playing God (ethics)
Playing God refers to assuming powers of decision, intervention, or control metaphorically reserved to God. Acts described as playing God may include, for example, deciding who should live or die in a situation where not everyone can be saved, the use and development of biotechnologies such as synthetic biology, and in vitro fertilisation. Usually the expression is used pejoratively and to criticize or argue against the supposedly God-like actions. Description Playing God is a broad concept, which is encompassed by both theological and scientific topics. When the term is used, it can be used to refer to people who try to exercise great authority and power. It is usually pejorative and suggests arrogance, misappropriation of power, or tampering with matters in which humans should not meddle. Etymology Playing God generally refers to someone using their power to make decisions regarding the fate of another's life or many lives. Theologian Paul Ramsey is noted for saying, "M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purports to be an account of the Genesis creation narrative, creation of the world, the early history of humanity, and the Jews#Origins, origins of the Jewish people. In Judaism, the theological importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God in Judaism, God to his chosen people and the people to the Promised Land. Genesis is part of the Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Tradition credits Moses as the Torah's author. However, there is scholarly consensus that the Book of Genesis was composed several centuries later, after the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian Babylonian captivity, captivity, possibly in the fifth century BC. Based on the scientific interpretation of Archaeology, archaeological, Genetics, genetic, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adam And Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. They also provide the basis for the doctrines of the fall of man and original sin, which are important beliefs in Christianity, although not held in Judaism or Islam. In the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, chapters one through five, there are two Genesis creation narrative, creation narratives with two distinct perspectives. In the first, Adam and Eve are not named. Instead, God in Christianity, God created humankind in image of God, God's image and instructed them to multiply and to be Stewardship (theology), stewards over everything else that God had made. In the second narrative, God fashions Adam from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. Adam is told that he can eat freely of all the trees in the garden, Taboo#In religion a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Botanist
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field. "Plant" and "botany" may be defined more narrowly to include only land plants and their study, which is also known as phytology. Phytologists or botanists (in the strict sense) study approximately 410,000 species of Embryophyte, land plants, including some 391,000 species of vascular plants (of which approximately 369,000 are flowering plants) and approximately 20,000 bryophytes. Botany originated as history of herbalism#Prehistory, prehistoric herbalism to identify and later cultivate plants that were edible, poisonous, and medicinal, making it one of the first endeavours of human investigation. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to Monastery, monasteries, contained plants possibly having medicinal benefit. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867)/Volume 1/Canto 17
The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of Western literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it existed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: '' Inferno'', ''Purgatorio'', and '' Paradiso''. The poem explores the condition of the soul following death and portrays a vision of divine justice, in which individuals receive appropriate punishment or reward based on their actions.Vallone, Aldo. "Commedia" (trans. Robin Treasure). In: Lansing (ed.), ''The Dante Encyclopedia'', pp. 181–184. It describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Allegorically, the poem re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Usury
Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in excess of the maximum rate that is allowed by law. A loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates or other factors defined by the laws of a state. Someone who practices usury can be called a ''usurer'', but in modern colloquial English may be called a ''loan shark''. In many historical societies including ancient Christian, Jewish, and Islamic societies, usury meant the charging of interest of any kind, and was considered wrong, or was made illegal. During the Sutra period in India (7th to 2nd centuries BC) there were laws prohibiting the highest castes from practicing usury. Similar condemnations are found in religious texts from Buddhism, Judaism ('' ribbit'' in Hebrew), Christianity, and Islam (''rib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inferno (Dante)
''Inferno'' (; Italian for 'Hell') is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century narrative poem ''The Divine Comedy'', followed by and . The ''Inferno'' describes the journey of a fictionalised version of Dante himself through Christian views on Hell, Hell, guided by the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm[...] of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen". As an allegory, the ''Divine Comedy'' represents the journey of the soul toward God, with the ''Inferno'' describing the recognition and rejection of sin. Prelude to Hell Canto I The poem begins on the night of Maundy Thursday on March 24 (or April 7), 1300, shortly before the dawn of Good Friday. The narrator, Dante himself, is 35 years old, and thus "midway i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reginaldo Degli Scrovegni
Reginaldo degli Scrovegni was a Paduan nobleman of the Guelph faction who lived in the 13th century just before the time of Giotto and Dante. He is best known for being cited as a usurer by Dante in the Divine Comedy, and to be the father of Enrico degli Scrovegni, who commissioned the famous Arena Chapel painted by Giotto. Place in Dante's ''Inferno'' In Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy poem '' Inferno'', Dante says that he saw Reginaldo in the inner ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell, where the violent are eternally punished. The inner ring of the Seventh Circle is a burning hot desert with a continual rain of fire. The usurers are to be found sitting on the sand, swatting away fire like animals swat bugs, and crying. Around their necks are found purses emblazoned with their coats of arms. This, and a bit of research into Dante's time-period, make it possible to identify who the suffering sinners are meant to be. Usurers are considered violent because, as Dante's Virgil explain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of Western literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval philosophy, medieval worldview as it existed in the Western Christianity, Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan dialect, Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: ''Inferno (Dante), Inferno'', ''Purgatorio'', and ''Paradiso (Dante), Paradiso''. The poem explores the condition of the soul following death and portrays a vision of divine justice, in which individuals receive appropriate punishment or reward based on their actions.Vallone, Aldo. "Commedia" (trans. Robin Treasure). In: Lansing (ed.), ''The Dante Encyclopedia'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
