The Marble Faun
The Roman inspirations for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 19th-century Gothic novel
ong ago in Rome, wealthy families often embellished their with tall, fortified towers. This allowed them to impress rival clans or perhaps dump noxious liquids on their heads when the situation required it. The owners of one such tower kept a pet monkey, an agile and rather mischievous creature. They also had an infant son; and the monkey decided one day to grab the baby and scamper up to the tower’s parapet. The parents were afraid to pursue the animal in case it dropped the boy,
