Hawthorne, Nathaniel
"A Virtuoso's Collection" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story first published in 1842. A narrator tours an extraordinary museum filled with legendary artifacts and creatures from history, mythology, and literature—from the wolf that ate Little Red Riding Hood to Prometheus's vulture, from Don Quixote's Rosinante to a live phoenix. As the tour progresses through this cabinet of wonders, the mysterious guide reveals an unexpected identity that transforms the meaning of this impossible collection. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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