den of Eden. "Le Culte du Feu"5, a work about "the old Persian Ghebers" (92), refers to Rappaccini and his strange, alchemic research - Gheber was an Arabian alchemist of the 8th century. "Beatrice; ou la Belle Empoisonneuse" (93), the 'original' title of the tale of "Rappaccini's Daughter," anticipates Beatrice's fantastic as well as terrible secret. The other titles don't refer directly to "Rappaccini's Daughter" but partly point to the "fantastic imagery" by mentioning wondrous things like a celestial journey by train ("Le Voyage Celeste à Chemin de Fer"6 (92)) or a serpent in the stomach ("(.) le Serpent à l'estomac"7 (92)). What else could the reader expect from an author of such fantastic titles if not another fantastic story, a story that is most probably going to be some kind of a fairytale?.

             1.2. The Opening Phrase.

             In the initial sentence of the actual story the time is given by means of the phrase "very long ago" (93), which strongly resembles the well-known phrase "once upon a time there was.", the classic beginning of a fairytale. Like in a fairytale, this phrase is used here to transport the reader into a remote time while leaving him in the dark about the exact time of the happenings. At the same time it indicates the temporal distance between the narrator and the happenings related by him, a distance that unavoidably leads to a certain indistinctness in which the outlines of fact and fiction become blurred: things that are said to have happened in a dim and distant past can hardly be proved or, which is more important here, proved wrong - anything might have happened in such a remote time. The narrator can relate the weirdest things without being guilty of deceiving the reader - the classic beginning indicates that the following story will be a fairytale with fantastic content ra!.

             ther than a report of facts. .

             In these surroundings the most fantastic happenings are not improbable any more, here the "old fable" of a girl fed on poison8 can eventually "become a truth" (118).