Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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See Also
- Theory of Short Fiction (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (Identities & Issues in Literature)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- First Published: 1837
- Type of Plot: Satire
- Time of Work: The early nineteenth century at the latest
- Setting: A doctor’s study, perhaps in New England
- Characters: Dr. Heidegger, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Gascoigne, Clara Wycherly
- Genres: Short fiction, Satire
- Subjects: Youth, Medicine, Human behavior, Experiments, Chemistry or chemists
- Locales: United States, New England, North America
The Story
Dr. Heidegger invites to his study four elderly friends to engage in an experiment. Three are men: Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne; the fourth is a woman, the Widow Clara Wycherly.
The study is a dusty, old-fashioned room replete with a skeleton in the closet, a bust of Hippocrates, books and bookcases, and a portrait of Sylvia Ward, who died fifty-five years before the night of the experiment on the eve of marriage to the doctor after swallowing one of his prescriptions.
The doctor shows his guests a faded rose that she gave him those...
(The entire page is 1651 words.)
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