Riassunto
Riassunto di Il parassita
A chi è rivolto
Readers who like Victorian ghost stories, psychological suspense and tales of science meeting the unknown, and who enjoy a story told in diary entries by a narrator who watches his own mind.
Che cos’è questo libro
The Parasite is a short novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who died in 1930. It first appeared in the 1890s. The story comes to us as the diary of Austin Gilroy, a young professor of physiology in an English university town, who trusts only what he can weigh, cut and measure.
The diary records how one evening in a friend's drawing room draws him into experiments in mesmerism, and how a frail woman from Trinidad begins to rule his days. You get a tale of scientific pride, of fear for the freedom of the mind, and of a mind that watches itself slip away. Doyle was a trained doctor, and he gives the diary an anxious, clinical voice that makes each entry feel true. Let us begin with the spring evening that changes everything.
In questo riassunto
- 1A skeptic meets Miss PenclosaFree
- 2A private test breaks the engagement
- 3Experiments turn into a grip
- 4One night he beats her, almost
- 5Her revenge strikes work and honor
- 6How the diary builds its dread
Punto chiave 1 di 6
A skeptic meets Miss Penclosa
The story opens on March 24 in a university town. Austin Gilroy, thirty-four years old and newly a professor of physiology, writes in his diary that spring is stirring in the trees and in his own blood. He is proud of his training. He trusts the microscope, the scalpel and the scale, and he believes the brain makes the mind just as the liver makes bile.
His friend Professor Wilson studies psychology and the unexplained, and he keeps asking Gilroy to join his research. Gilroy refuses politely, because Wilson's subjects seem to him either frauds or hysterics. Still, he accepts an invitation to an evening at Wilson's house, mostly because his fiancee Agatha Marden and her mother will be there. He expects a performer he can see through in a minute.
There he meets Miss Helen Penclosa, a small, pale woman from Trinidad, well past forty, who leans on a crutch. Her gray-green eyes strike him as furtive, then fierce, then catlike. She calls a girl across the room simply by dropping a fan, and Gilroy takes it for a crude trick with a signal. Then she offers to put Agatha into a trance, and Agatha agrees with delight.
As Penclosa stands over her subject, she seems to grow younger and stronger, and Gilroy resents the look of command on her face. After ten sweeping passes Agatha is deeply asleep, and nothing Gilroy says or does can wake her. Penclosa whispers something in her ear, then wakes her with a tap of the crutch. As Gilroy leaves, shaken, she presses a sealed note into his hand with orders to open it at ten the next morning.
That’s 1 of 6 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
Who’s who
- Austin Gilroy
- A professor of physiology and the diary writer, Gilroy trusts reason and disputes his colleague Professor Wilson's belief in mesmerism.
- Miss Penclosa
- Miss Penclosa is a woman of remarkable will whose influence over Gilroy challenges his confidence in his own reason.
- Agatha Marden
- Agatha Marden is Gilroy's fiancée, whose place in his life gives his struggle a deeply personal importance.
- Professor Wilson
- Professor Wilson is Gilroy's colleague and friend, taking mesmerism seriously where Gilroy sees only tricks for the gullible.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 18,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 10 min
- Listening time2 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Il parassita
What is The Parasite by Arthur Conan Doyle about?
It follows Austin Gilroy, a skeptical professor of physiology, who takes part in mesmerism experiments with Miss Penclosa and finds that she can bend his will, his feelings and even his actions from a distance.
Who is the parasite in The Parasite?
Gilroy calls Miss Helen Penclosa a parasite because she can send her will into another body and steer it, like a hermit crab creeping into a shell. The image comes up in his diary on April 8.
Is The Parasite a true story?
No, it is fiction. Doyle wrote it in the 1890s, when mesmerism, hypnosis and psychical research were much discussed, and drew on that interest to create a diary of a scientist who loses control.
Is The Parasite easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that the diary form keeps it direct. Entries are short and dated, the language is clear, and each one moves the story forward. A reader can follow it comfortably in a sitting or two.
What is the main message of The Parasite?
The story asks how far a person's will is truly their own. It shows a man who trusts only matter and measurement, then meets a force that cannot be weighed, and it questions the confidence of pure rationalism.