In this selection from the Spencer Library of Literary Classics, we present a story by Fitz-James O’Brien which many people consider to be his masterpiece. A creative man to the core, O’Brien even embellished the details of his life story and as a result we can only guess that the year of his birth was 1828. We are quite certain of the year of his death however, as it occurred only 34 years later in 1862 when O’Brien succumbed to the complications of a wound suffered during the Civil War.

O’Brien’s strength as a writer rests on his ability to skillfully weave the supernatural into even the most mundane situations. A case in point is the story we present here. What begins as a somewhat boring lecture on the subject of optics and microscopes quickly evolves into a tale of deception, murder and manic devotion. Narrated by the scientist to whom it all happened, this is an
account of what it means to become obsessed with, and ultimately consumed by an image formed within The Diamond Lens.