Shattuck, Roger

Examines the meaning of moral responsibility in literature and our everyday lives, tracing the tragic arc of Western literature and culture as it explores the notion of "forbidden knowledge," from the sexual innocence of Adam and Eve to the awe-inspiring discoveries of modern scientists who have created the atomic bomb and recombinant DNA.

An account of the public life of a young boy who appeared in a French village in 1800 after living as a wild animal for most of his eleven or twelve years and of the attempts of a doctor to bring him to a civilized state.