Project Gutenberg 2015-10-28 Public domain in the USA. 93 O'Brien, Fitz James 1828 1862 O'Brien, Fitzjames O'Brien, Michael Fitz James O'Brien, Fitz-James The Diamond Lens Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Diamond Lens" by Fitz James O'Brien is a short story written during the mid-19th century, specifically in the 1850s, that falls under the genre of weird fiction blended with science fiction elements. The narrative explores the obsessive passion of a microscopist who becomes consumed with the search for perfection in his microscopy work, ultimately leading him to an extraordinary but tragic conclusion about his experiments and his desire for an unattainable love. In the story, the protagonist, Linley, is an ambitious young man fascinated by microscopic life and dedicated to improving the lens of his microscope. After a series of discoveries, including a prophecy from a spirit he consults, he constructs an incredibly powerful diamond lens. Through this lens, he encounters a fantastical creature he names Animula—an ethereal being of exquisite beauty living in a hidden world within a drop of water. As Linley's obsession deepens, he neglects his own well-being, culminating in a desperate realization of his love for Animula and the realization that his scientific pursuits have led to her demise when the drop of water evaporates. The story examines themes of ambition, love, and the consequences of unchecked obsession, ultimately portraying the tragic intersection between scientific pursuit and emotional longing. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Murder -- Fiction Microscopy -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 82450 82455 2024-09-21T05:10:58.588136 2023-09-21T14:57:44.447554 text/html text/html 79288 2015-10-27T19:00:50 text/html; charset=us-ascii 155168 2015-10-27T19:00:58 text/html; charset=us-ascii application/zip 171784 2024-09-21T05:11:00.680114 application/epub+zip 170731 2024-09-21T05:10:59.018105 application/epub+zip 93169 2024-09-21T05:10:58.794114 application/epub+zip 212373 2024-09-21T05:11:02.174315 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 205072 2024-09-21T05:11:00.452108 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 127747 2022-09-22T17:48:00.174718 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 74770 74675 2024-09-21T05:10:58.450123 2023-09-21T14:57:44.294572 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 75045 2015-10-27T19:00:50 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 29938 2015-10-27T19:00:58 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 19180 2024-09-21T05:11:02.322100 application/rdf+xml 27207 2024-09-21T05:10:58.857147 image/jpeg 4833 2024-09-21T05:10:58.825121 image/jpeg 156345 2024-09-21T05:10:58.601130 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia