Nathaniel Hawthorne

Rappaccini's Daughter Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Rappaccini's Daughter" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne first published in the December 1844. It is about Giacomo Rappaccini, a medical researcher in medieval 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.