Riassunto
Trama e riassunto di Idolatria
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love Gothic atmosphere, haunted houses, Egyptian relics and strange romance, and who enjoy a narrator with a wry voice and a story that asks big questions about pride, guilt and love.
Che cos’è questo libro
Can a man turn himself into a god? Balder Helwyse, a golden-bearded eye doctor, thinks so. The year is 1853, and Julian Hawthorne, son of Nathaniel Hawthorne, sends him through Boston, across a fog-bound sound and over the Hudson River. On the way come a ghostly diamond ring, an Egyptian household in New Jersey and a stranger's voice in the dark. The narrator chats with you freely, teases you and promises to keep to plain fact while telling a tale full of marvels. Begin with the ring that sets everything in motion.
In questo riassunto
- 1A Magic Ring Tells Its TaleFree
- 2A Young Man Arrives with Questions
- 3A Voice in the Fog
- 4A Crime and Its Aftermath
- 5A Princess Seen Across the River
- 6Legends Behind the Wall
- 7Gnulemah, Daughter of Fire
- 8What the Book Is Really About
- 9How the Story Is Told
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A Magic Ring Tells Its Tale
The book opens in a Boston hotel on a night in late May 1853. The narrator invites you into the room of a sleeping guest, Doctor Hiero Glyphic. On his finger is an antique diamond ring, its band two tiny serpents, one gold and one black iron, each biting at the stone.
The ring has twenty-seven facets, each carrying a small character. Together they form a written history, and the narrator uses them to read the sleeper's past. It is a playful way to learn what a plain narrator could not know.
The record leads to Egypt in 1816. A boy of about ten, the son of priests, drifts too far into the Nile, and a crocodile closes in. The boy is raised by the collector Glyphic as Manetho, and the household in New Jersey later gains Helen and the gypsy girl Salome. The tale ends in tragedy and gives the ring a bloody history.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about Idolatria
What is Idolatry by Julian Hawthorne about?
It follows Balder Helwyse, a young philosopher and eye doctor, who goes looking for his uncle in America. A night on a fogbound steamer and a visit to a walled estate test his belief in himself and bring him to a mysterious young woman, Gnulemah.
Who is Gnulemah in Idolatry?
Gnulemah is a young woman who has grown up behind a high wall, dressed in ancient Egyptian style. She believes the outside world is shadow and that her life depends on a lamp in a temple. Balder falls in love with her.
What does the ring with the two serpents mean?
The antique diamond ring has a gold serpent and a black iron one biting the stone. The narrator calls it a symbol of the soul fought over by good and evil, and the ring also carries a written history of its owners in its facets.
When was Idolatry written and is it a true story?
It is a work of fiction set in 1853, written by Julian Hawthorne in the nineteenth century. The narrator blends realistic Boston and New York scenes with fantasy, Egyptian relics and philosophical musing, so it reads as a romance rather than a record of fact.
What is the main message of Idolatry?
The book argues that a person who sets himself up as his own god, judging good and evil alone, will fall. It suggests that humility, love and trust in something higher can teach what pride and clever argument cannot.