Selected Tales and Sketches

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is best known for his classic American novels "Scarlet Letter", "The Blithedale Romance," "The House of Seven Gables" and "The Marble Faun." What you may not know is that he was also a short story author of genius. The stories in this Penguin edition are culled from several of his collections. They were written in the 1830s when the struggling author was seeking to make a living from his pen. Many of them suggest the major themes of his novels. Such stories as "The Minister's Black Veil", "Egoism or The Bosom Serpent" deal with the Calvinistic wrestling with sin and deception prevalent in the New England milieu which gave birth to the Salem Mass. born author. The first mention of a woman forced to wear a scarlet letter pronouncing her adultery with a large letter "A" is found in the tale "Endicott's Red Cross." Tales like "My Cousin Major Molineaux" are ironical in a flowing style making good use of descriptive prose and first person narration. Here you will find major stories such as: Young Goodman Brown-the story of a young Puritan man who attends a devil's worship service in the forest at which many of the town's pillars of propriety are present. A classic tale of a fall from innocence in the American wilderness. The May-Pole at Marymont is an indictment of legalistic Calvinist faith as all joy is erased from the human heart. Hawthorne wed one of the famed Peabody sisters who were influential in liberal Unitarian and Transcendalists circles. The Celestial Railroad takes us on a wild ride to hell using images taken from John Bunyan's seventeenth century religious classic of Puritan thought: "The Pilgrim's Progress." Rappaccini's Daugher is the story of a mad scientist who poisons his daughter with his potions making her glance or touch fatal to plants and animals. Ethan Brand is a Faustian tale of a man who spends his fruitless life in quest of discovering the unforgiven sin. In these 31 stories there is a festschrift of literary joy for all those who seek to know the mind of a brilliant American author whose short stories are in the top rank. The only element missing is humor.

This volume contains Hawthorne's most well- known stories,among them "Young Goodman Brown" " The Birthmark" " The Hollow of Two Hills" "Ethan Brand." They are written with that complicated, gloomy,Gothic, haunting, somehow discomfiting Hawthorne style. They bear them some sense of predestination, and irrevocable doom, a sense of sin and its punishment. They have that kind of unique psychological penetration which marks Hawthorne's genius. I can never say I loved reading these stories, really enjoyed this work. But always sensed they had a deep meaning and real value.

Hawthorne was, of course, one of (if not *the*) most important writers of 19th Century America and this edition demonstrates why. The level of engagement Hawthorne had with early America, the level of detail in his texts, and the level of scholarship advanced by the editor, demonstrate why Hawthorne is, inded, one of our contemporaries. Nobody can consider him- or herself "knowledgeable" about American literary history or American literature without reading "Young Goodman Brown," "My Kinsaman, Major Molineux," "The Minister's Black Veil," or "The May-Pole of Merry-Mount": these tales engage, variously, in themes of religiosity, national identity or formation, and the desire to re-write American-ness. indeed, these tales, which later influenced writers as disparate as Herman Melville, Henry James and Gertrude Stein, provide the very fabric of "American" literature. Although we have all been beaten over the head by Hawthorne in High School (if not college), an errand into his wilderness is, nonetheless, rewarding, fascinating, and enlightening: Colacurcio's editing and attention to detail (much like the subject of the book!) makes the volume accessible and rewarding.

there's a lot of interesting content in this book. it opens your mind to a lot of new personalities.