Dr Heideggers Experiment
Complete textDr. Heidegger invites four elderly acquaintances to his study and offers them a chance to taste water said to restore youth. Their responses to this extraordinary experiment begin to reveal whether regret has changed their desires or merely interrupted their ability to pursue them.
Continue readingAbout Dr Heideggers Experiment
The study's curious objects establish an atmosphere between parlor entertainment and moral fable. Hawthorne keeps attention on behavior rather than explaining the water, using the guests' familiar rivalries to test their confidence in a wiser second life. The doctor's role as spectator complicates the boundary between inquiry and amusement.
Reading focus
Explore a brief fantastic experiment that asks whether another chance at youth would bring wisdom or revive old mistakes.
This reading edition contains 3,674 words in 1 original section. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
That very singular man old Dr. Heidegger once invited four venerable friends to meet him in his study. There were three white-bearded gentlemen—Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew and Mr. Gascoigne—and a withered gentlewoman whose name was the widow Wycherly. They were all melancholy old creatures who had been unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves. Mr. Medbourne, in the vigor of his age, had been a prosperous merchant, but had lost his all by a frantic speculation, and was now little better than a mendicant. Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best years and his health and substance in the pursuit of sinful pleasures which had given…
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This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 1 section and 3,674 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.
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