The Diamond Lens (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Fitz-James O’Brien
- First Published: 1858
- Type of Plot: Fantasy
- Time of Work: The mid-nineteenth century
- Setting: New York City
- Principal Characters: Mr. Linley, Jules Simon, Madame Vulpes, Animula
- Genres: Short fiction, Fantasy, Parable
- Subjects: Surrealism, Other worlds, Imagination
- Locales: New York, NY
The Story
Mr. Linley has had an obsessive fascination with microscopic investigations from the time he was ten years old. Beneath the microscope, he sees a world akin to Alf layla wa-layla (fifteenth century; The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, 1706-1708) in which the dull veil of ordinary existence that hangs across the world seems to roll away and to lay bare a land of enchantments; like many of the narrators in the stories of Poe, he feels elevated above all other men, seeing the world in a more profound way. However, as is also typical of Poe characters, it...
[The entire page is 1464 words long]
