|
The Great Carbuncle
"The Great Carbuncle" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It first appeared in December 1835 before being included in the collection ''Twice-Told Tales'' in 1837. Plot synopsis In the White Mountains, a band of eight adventurers gathers together. They are each on a personal quest for the Great Carbuncle, a brilliant gem legendary in its elusiveness. The adventurers are as follows: *The Seeker: a 60-year-old man who has sought the Carbuncle his entire life, and who plans to die alongside it once he finds it. *Doctor Cacaphodel: a European chemist, who intends to analyze the Carbuncle and publish his findings. *Master Ichabod Pigsnort: a merchant, who wishes to sell the Carbuncle to the highest bidder. *The Cynic: a bespectacled man with a constant sneer. He considers the hopes of the other adventurers futile and makes derisive comments about them. His goal is to prove that the Carbuncle does not exist by searching everywhere for it. *The Poet: a man who hopes the Carbuncle wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story has been recurrently problematic. A classic definition of a short story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that town. Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College in 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and graduated in 1825. He published his first work in 1828, the novel '' Fanshawe''; he later tried to suppress it, feeling that it was not equal to the standard of his later work. He published several short stories in periodicals, which he collected in 1837 as ''Twice-Told Tales''. The following year, he became engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at the Boston Custom House and joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist 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 suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twice-Told Tales
''Twice-Told Tales'' is a short story collection in two volumes by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first volume was published in the spring of 1837 and the second in 1842. The stories had all been previously published in magazines and annuals, hence the name. Publication Hawthorne was encouraged by friend Horatio Bridge to collect these previously anonymous stories; Bridge offered $250 to cover the risk of the publication. Many had been published in '' The Token'', edited by Samuel Griswold Goodrich. When the works became popular, Bridge revealed Hawthorne as the author in a review he published in the ''Boston Post''. The title, ''Twice-Told Tales'', was based on a line from William Shakespeare's '' King John'' (Act 3, scene 4): "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, / Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man." The quote referenced may also be Hawthorne's way of acknowledging a belief that many of his stories were ironic retellings of familiar tropes. The title also alludes to the last f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. They are part of the northern Appalachian Mountains and the most rugged mountains in New England. The range is heavily visited due to its proximity to Boston, New York City, and Montreal. Most of the area is public land, including the White Mountain National Forest and a number of state parks. Its most famous mountain is Mount Washington, which is the highest peak in the Northeastern U.S. and for 76 years held the record for fastest surface wind gust in the world ( in 1934). Mount Washington is part of a line of summits, the Presidential Range, that are named after U.S. presidents and other prominent Americans. The White Mountains also include the Franconia Range, Sandwich Range, Carter-Moriah Range and Kinsman Range in New Hampshire, and the Mahoosuc Range straddling the border between it and Maine. In all, there are 48 peak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbuncle (gemstone)
Carbuncle () is another name for a deep red almandine gemstone that has been cut with a smooth, convex face in a method called cabochon. Traditionally, the term referred to any red gemstone, most often a red garnet. Although they share the same linguistic origin, this gemstone should not to be confused with the medical term carbuncle, a type of abscess. Cultural references Legendary creature In South American folklore, the carbuncle is a small elusive animal containing a mirror, shining gemstone or riches like gold. The description of the carbuncle vary, some saying it looks like a firefly in the night, or like having a bivalve-like shell and maize ear shape. According to the '' Book of Imaginary Beings'' "nobody ever saw it well enough to know whether it was a bird or a mammal, whether it had feathers or fur." A Chilean man known as Gaspar Huerta is said to have encountered a carbuncle while digging an irrigation canal, but reportedly he could not see what its shape was beca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground. It is common in the continental crust of Earth, where it is found in igneous intrusions. These range in size from dikes only a few centimeters across to batholiths exposed over hundreds of square kilometers. Granite is typical of a larger family of ''granitic rocks'', or ''granitoids'', that are composed mostly of coarse-grained quartz and feldspars in varying proportions. These rocks are classified by the relative percentages of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase (the QAPF classification), with true granite representing granitic rocks rich in quartz and alkali feldspar. Most granitic rocks also contain mica or amphibole minerals, though a few (known as leucogranites) contain almost no dark minerals. Granite is nearly alway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Fire Of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the wall to the west. The death toll is generally thought to have been relatively small, although some historians have challenged this belief. The fire started in a bakery in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday 2 September, and spread rapidly. The use of the major firefighting technique of the time, the creation of firebreaks by means of removing structures in the fire's path, was critically delayed due to the indecisiveness of the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth. By the time large-scale demolitions were ordered on Sunday night, the wind had already fanned the bakery fire into a firestorm which defeated such measures. The fire pushed north on Monday into the heart of the City. Order in the streets broke down as rumours arose of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Admitted to the union in 1791 as the 14th state, it is the only state in New England not bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. According to the 2020 U.S. census, the state has a population of 643,503, ranking it the second least-populated in the U.S. after Wyoming. It is also the nation's sixth-smallest state in area. The state's capital Montpelier is the least-populous state capital in the U.S., while its most-populous city, Burlington, is the least-populous to be a state's largest. For some 12,000 years, indigenous peoples have inhabited this area. The competitive tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk were active in the area at the time of European encounter. During the 17th century, Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Of the 50 U.S. states, New Hampshire is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, fifth smallest by area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, tenth least populous, with slightly more than 1.3 million residents. Concord, New Hampshire, Concord is the state capital, while Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester is the largest city. New Hampshire's List of U.S. state mottos, motto, "Live Free or Die", reflects its role in the American Revolutionary War; its state nickname, nickname, "The Granite State", refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries. It is well known nationwide for holding New Hampshire primary, the first primary (after the Iowa caucus) in the United States presidential election ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New-England Magazine
''The New-England Magazine'' was a monthly literary magazine published in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1831 to 1835. Overview The magazine was published by Joseph T. Buckingham and his son Edwin. The first edition was published in July 1831, and it published a total of 48 editions. After its final issue, in December 1835, the magazine merged with the New York-based ''American Monthly Magazine''. The magazine has been described as "one of antebellum America's few worthwhile literary journals". Its contributors included Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edward Everett, and Samuel Gridley Howe. Beginning in November 1831, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. included two of the essays that evolved into his "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" series, which became his most popular prose works. Several of Nathaniel Hawthorne's early short stories were published in the magazine, including "The Ambitious Guest" (November 1835) and "The Great Carbuncle" (December 1835) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ambitious Guest
"The Ambitious Guest" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. First published in ''The New-England Magazine'' in June 1835, it was republished in the second volume of ''Twice-Told Tales'' in 1841. Plot A young traveler stops for the night with a family that lives in a " notch" next to a mountain. They make friendly conversation, interrupted once by the sound of a wagon carrying other travelers, and then by the sound of rocks falling from the slope. The father reassures the visitor that rockfalls happen regularly without causing harm, but that the family has a "safe place" to go in the event of a serious collapse. The group carries on with their friendly conversation. The visitor acknowledges that he is young and has no accomplishments of note, but hopes he will have "achieved my destiny" before he dies and then "I shall have built my monument!" The father expresses the wish for a more humble legacy. Suddenly, they hear the sound of a much larger avalanche. They scream in fear of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
