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The Diamond Lens
Fitz James O'Brien
Book Overview:
A fantasy story about a boy fascinated my a microscope, who grows up to do whatever it takes to build the perfect microscope, and what he found when he did.
A fantasy story about a boy fascinated my a microscope, who grows up to do whatever it takes to build the perfect microscope, and what he found when he did.
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Mad or not, I set myself to work with a zeal which few scientific students have ever equaled. I had everything to learn relative to the delicate study upon which I had embarked—a study involving the most earnest patience, the most rigid analytic powers, the steadiest hand, the most untiring eye, the most refined and subtle manipulation.
For a long time half my apparatus lay inactively on the shelves of my laboratory, which was now most amply furnished with every possible contrivance for facilitating my investigations. The fact was that I did not know how to use some of my scientific implements—never having been taught microscopies—and those whose use I understood theoretically were of little avail until by practice I could attain the necessary delicacy of handling. Still, such was the fury of my ambition, such the untiring . . . Read More
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Community Reviews
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I have a bit of a hard time rating this one because I just feel... vaguely neutral about it? I can't decide if I enjoyed it or not.
I like the concept and the writing style was enjoyable but the story just didn't catch me the way I wanted it to.
From the murder a) he decided on within like three lines
3.25⭐
This is the story of a narrator, Mr. Linley who is so obsessed with his own desire and quasi-scientific aims to create the perfect microscope that the entire world of the story centers on his obsession.
Rereading this for my class, I am struck again by the balance of the Gothic and the scientific in O'Brien's story. This is the first known published tale in which another world is perceived through a microscope, and O'Brien does great justice to the sense of wonder and longing this sight evokes. It'
The Diamond Lens is a story that had an interesting idea, but it failed to wow me in the way I had hoped. I couldn’t help but compare this story with the work of Poe. Not only did this come from the same era, but there were many elements in this one that reminded me of Poe’s work. A bit of obsession
L'ho preso principalmente per "What was it?" Il quale sembrava essere un gran racconto.
Lo é, ma per tematiche e atmosfera preferiró sempre "L'Horla" di Maupassant il quale tratta per me in maniera migliore un espediente soprannaturale identico.
Gli altri sono racconti che vanno dal discreto all' otti
Found this to be a nice short read. Useful context for the potential reader - this is right at the beginning of science fiction as a genre, and there are some weird little artifacts in the work as a result. For some readers this probably diminishes the work, but I found it sort of fun. The book sort
Brilliantly written short story about achieving ones ambition at any cost.
'What care I if I waded to the portal to this wonder through another's blood'
When the narrator finally meets Animula, the way that is is presented makes me think of this as the earliest example (1858) of Toonophilia. The microscopic being of light he falls in love with may as well be Jessica Rabbit or Sailor Moon. The other side of the microscope lens is as an incalculable g