Secretul doctorului Grimshawe

O legendă englezească, venită din străfundul istoriei unei vechi familii, stârneşte imaginaţia unui copil orfan, crescut de ciudatul doctor Grimshawe, un savant neânteles şi ratat, care iubeşte păianjenii şi încearcă să obţină medicamentul minune din pânza acestora. După mulţi ani de la moartea doctorului, la fel de misterioasă ca întreaga lui viaţă, tânarul face o călatorie în Anglia pe urmele tulburatoarei legende şi află, printre altele, care era secretul tutorelui său şi al fetiţei cu care copilărise în casa de lângă cimitirul unui orăşel din Noua Anglie. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret in 1861, but he never considered the work finished and did not publish it before his death. It was published posthumously in 1883, by Hawthorne’s son, Julian. Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret, according to literature historians, contains more autobiographical material than any of Hawthorne's other writings. One of the principal topics is Hawthorne’s unresolved feelings about his childhood guardian, whose character is represented by Dr. Grimshawe, a spider-cultivating eccentric. The central motif (i.e., the "secret") of the book is an all-encompassing spider web. The Grimshawe name, probably learned when Hawthorne spent extensive time in England (he was the American consul in Liverpool for four years), was apparently picked because he felt that it fit the grim and foreboding character of the central character (i.e., Hawthorne’s guardian.) Thus neither the name nor the novel appear to have anything to do with members of the Grimshaw family.