Elsie Venner

Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny is an 1861 novel by American author and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Later dubbed the first of his "medicated novels", it tells the story of a young woman whose mother was bitten by a rattlesnake while pregnant, which imbued the child with some characteristics of the reptile. Bernard Langdon, who takes a teaching job at Elsie's school, becomes curious about her, even as he slightly fears her.