Nathaniel Hawthorne 
Septimius Felton 
Or, The Elixir of Life

One of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s later works, Septimius Felton is a beguiling and thought-provoking tale of murder most foul. One of a series of the author’s works that grapple with themes of immortality, Septimius Felton was written shortly before Hawthorne himself succumbed to a mysterious illness, a fact that lends a dimension of profound poignancy to the story.