Nathaniel Hawthorne, página 6 de 32

The "English Note-Books" were the result of Hawthornes residence abroad, on being appointed Consul at Liverpool, by President Pierce. Although the "English Note-Books" are not so abundant in imaginative hints as the American, their range of topic and observation is wider, and they show how readily the author, who had lived as a recluse at home, adapted himself to society, to the obligations which his public position and his fame brought upon him.

This is the annotated edition including both volumes of the original book, a rare and extensive biographical essay on the author, as well as an essay by Edgar Allan Poe on Hawthornes tale-writing.Hawthornes early stories were collected in 1837 and published under the title "Twice-Told Tales." They include two of the stories founded on early New England annals, -- "The Gray Champion," based on a tradition of one of the judges of Charles I., and "The Maypole of Merry-Mount," in which Endicott appears as the embodiment of the Puritan spirit. Besides these are the allegories "Fancys Show Box,""The Great Carbuncle," and " The Prophetic Pictures ; ""The Hollow of the Three Hills," one of the typical stories of witchcraft, foreshadowing some of his later and more powerful work; the curious study, "Wakeeld", the popular "Rill from the Town Pump ;" the pretty fantasy, " David Swan," in which the lighthearted boy goes on his pilgrimage unconscious of the shadows of possibilities that have fallen across his sleeping face; the pathetic story of Quaker suffering, "The Gentle Boy ; "" Dr. Heideggers Experiment," - touching a subject which recurs again in " Septimius Felton " and " The Dolliver Romance ;" and the light humor of "Mr. Higginbothams Catastrophe,-" thus including almost every class of subject on which he afterward touched, though in all he rose to higher levels in his later work.

This compilation offers Hawthornes tales, sketches and other papers that were not included in any other publication. The first group of short pieces embraced in this volume belongs to Hawthorne s earlier period; excepting " Browne s Folly," which was addressed to the authors cousin, Mr. Richard Manning, of Salem, after the return from Europe. The "Biographical Sketches," that follow next in the order of contents, appear here as the result of a gleaning from old magazines, which was made after Hawthorne s death. Contents:Tales and SketchesSketches From MemoryFragments From The Journal Of A Solitary ManMy Visit to NiagaraThe Antique RingThe Legend.Graves and GoblinsDr. BullivantA Book Of AutographsAn Old Womans TaleTimes PortraitureBrownes FollyBiographical StoriesBenjamin WestSir Isaac Newton.Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonOliver CromwellBenjamin FranklinBenjamin FranklinQueen ChristinaBiographical StudiesMrs. Hutchinson.Sir William Phips.Sir William Pepperell.Thomas Green Fessenden.Jonathan Cilley.Alice Doanes AppealChiefly About War MattersThe Life of Franklin Pierce

This is the annotated edition including a rare and extensive biographical essay on the author, as well as an introductory to the book written by George Parsons Lathrop."The Marble Faun " was sketched in Italy and prepared for publication mainly in Redcar, England, in 1859-60. The Castle of Monte Beni, the ancestral home of Donatello, the human faun, stands for Villa Montanto, where the author made his home for a time in the summer of 1858 ; and the original of Hildas tower is described in the "French and Italian Note-Books,", May 15, 1858.This romance, which is generally held to be somewhat inferior to the novels of American life, though in an entirely different setting, does not differ greatly from them, or from some of the best short stories, in the nature of its topic and the handling of its characters. Like them it has for its theme a subject of conscience, the influence of the consciousness of sin and its penalty, in elevating the life of a soul. Donatellos resemblance to the sculptured faun is typical of his spirit, unawakened, and looking neither before nor after, until his crime puts an end-forever to his joyous holiday existence, and remorse for it develops his intellect and his soul. Kenyon is a good type of a cultivated American, quietly enthusiastic, tolerant and not cynical, loving art and not despising America. Hilda is remarkable for the great moral strength united with her delicacy and sensibility. Her suffering on account of the crime of which she has been merely a witness is strongly contrasted with the attitude of Miriam, whose conscience needs to be brought to a full awakening even after participation in it; her free and strong nature having been bewildered in a maze of wrong, the one escape from which has offered itself in sudden temptation.

Like all of Hawthornes novels, "The Scarlet Letter" has but a slender plot and but few characters with an influence on the development of the story. Its great dramatic force depends entirely on the mental states of the actors and their relations to one another, relations of conscience, relations between wronged and wrongers. Its great burden is the weight of unacknowledged sin as seen in the remorse and cowardice and suffering of the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale. Contrasted with his concealed agony is the constant confession, conveyed by the letter, which is forced upon Hester, and has a double effect, a healthful one, working beneficently, and making her helpful and benevolent, tolerant and thoughtful ; and an unhealthful one, which by the great emphasis placed on her transgression, the keeping her forever under its ban and isolating her from her fellows, prepares her to break away from the long repression and lapse again into sin when she plans her flight. Roger Chillingworth is an embodiment of subtle and refined revenge. The most striking situation is perhaps "The Ministers Vigil," in chapter xii. The book, though corresponding in its tone and burden to some of the shorter stories, had a more startling and dramatic character, and a strangeness, which at once took hold of a larger public than any of those had attracted. Though imperfectly comprehended, and even misunderstood in some quarters, it was seen to have a new and unique quality; and Hawthornes reputation became national.

This is the annotated edition including both volumes of the original book, a rare biographical essay on the author, as well as an essay by Edgar Allan Poe on Hawthornes tale-writing.In 1846 the "Mosses from an Old Manse" was published in New York in two volumes, which contain, on the whole, his best work in short stories, and are prefaced by one of his most delightful essays, "The Old Manse." In some of them, it may be, the allegory is too apparent, but in general they are very deep and searching studies of the heart and conscience. Among the best are " Young Goodman Brown,"" Roger Malvins Burial,"" Rappaccinis Daughter," which is usually placed highest, and " Drownes Wooden Image."" The Birthmark " and " The Artist of the Beautiful" also rank high in the estimation of critics. "The Celestial Railroad " is a clever satire on modern religion; "The Intelligence Oice,""The Procession of Life," and "Earths Holocaust" are conceits with a burden of symbolic meaning. "The Old Apple-Dealer " is a study of a character with the least possible amount of coloring. " P.s Correspondence" is mainly interesting, perhaps, for the curious speculation, under the guise of a lunatics vagaries, on what age might have made of those early poets of the century who died young or in middle life, - especially of what its sobering and conservative tendencies would have done for Byron, Burns, Shelley, and Keats. " The Hall of Fantasy,"" A Select Party," and " A Virtuosos Collection" are ingeniously executed fancies. "Mrs. Bullfrog" is a light, humorous sketch, and " Fire Worship" and " Buds and Bird Voices" are delightful essays.

When Hawthorne died in 1864, he left in manuscript three unfinished romances which, when afterward published by his heirs, were given the arbitrary titles of Doctor Grimshawes Secret, Septimius Felton, and The Dolliver Romance. Doctor Grimshawes Secret represents Hawthornes attempt to write an "English romance" out of his own experiences in England during his residence there from 1853 to 1858.

In the summer of 1860 Hawthorne returned to America and prepared for the Atlantic Monthly some sketches of England, which appeared in that magazine in 1862 and 1863, and with others were published in book form in 1863, under the title "Our Old Home."The opening article, "Consular Experiences," gives some curious incidents in his office at Liverpool, and describes queer Americans who came for the consular help. The closing one, "Civic Banquets," affords a glimpse at some of the public social intercourse to which his position introduced him. "Licheld and Uttoxeter " is devoted largely to Dr. Johnson. Long before, Hawthorne had written for children the story of Johnsons penance in Uttoxeter market. The offense taken by the Uttoxeter people at an article published in Harpers Magazine is mentioned in the " English Note-Books," vol. ii., August 2,1857. " Recollections of a Gifted Woman " gives some notes on Stratford, together with reminiscences of Delia Bacon. In "Yesterdays with Authors" Mr. Fields says: " One of the most difficult matters he had to manage while in England was the publication of Miss Bacons singular book on Shakespeare. The poor lady, after he had agreed to see the work through the press, broke off all correspondence with him in a storm of wrath, accusing him of pusillanimity in not avowing full faith in her theory; so that, as he told me, so far as her good-will was concerned, he had not gained much by taking the responsibility of her book upon his shoulders. It was a heavy weight for him to bear, in more senses than one, for he paid out of his own pocket the expenses of publication." The other articles of the book describe Warwick, Oxford, Leamington, Boston, Lincoln, some parts of London, and the haunts of Burns.

This is the annotated edition including a rare and extensive biographical essay on the author, as well as an essay by Edgar Allan Poe on Hawthornes tale-writing.In the year 1852 "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales" was published. It is dedicated in an interesting preface to Horatio Bridge, and is made up of tales and sketches gathered from periodicals. It is a little inferior in general to the other collections, though the title story is done with a wonderfully ne and delicate touch, and "Ethan Brand "has a great deal of power. This is written from the hint for a story on the unpardonable sin, which occurs in the "Note-Books," the setting being suggested by the lime-kilns in Berkshire, alluded to in the first volume of the "American Note-Books, "September 7, 1838. The other noticeable sketches of the book are " The Canterbury Pilgrims, "a story of the Shakers, "The Great Stone Face, "a tale of the Prole in the Franconia Notch, and the curious sketch "Major Molineux.""Old News" is made up from some old Boston newspapers, issued before and during the Revolution. "Old Ticonderoga" is one of the slight reminiscences of travel. "A Bells Biography "and "Main Street" have the peculiar touch that marks all the sketches of Puritan life.

In November, being wearied with inland life, Hawthorne went back to the east, and settled for the winter in West Newton, Massachusetts, where he wrote "The Blithedale Romance." This book is founded on his experience at Brook Farm, ten years before, though the incidents, he says, are purely imaginary, and the characters are but slightly related, if at all, to any of the participants in that scheme. That of Hollingsworth grew, no doubt, out of thoughts suggested by his residence among reformers as to the tendencies of all-absorbing theories of reform, though it needed a strong and narrow nature like that of Hollingsworth to exhibit them in all their force. There are many observations scattered through the book, regarding communistic life, which evidently resulted from his experience there. Miles Coverdale, who tells the story, of course represents the author in many points, if not intended as a portrait. A story told in the first person in a contemplative and analytic style like that of Hawthorne must necessarily reproduce the author to some extent in the mental structure of the narrator. Coverdale is a type of the men who do nothing because they see too much and too widely. Hollingsworths narrowness is the great source of his power, and in the end becomes his destruction.The character of Zenobia, which is said to have some traits of Margaret Fuller, is one of the strongest ever drawn by Hawthorne, and one of the most unique in literature. Literary women have had but a slender showing in fiction, most of the portraits of them being feeble caricatures. But this one, whose literary work is secondary to her impressive personality, is the type of a class, not large, who have gone into literature because of their abounding vitality and the scarcity of outlets for it; who stand for very little to readers beyond the reach of their social influence.

The Heritage Works are Hawthornes works that were left unfinished or unattended after his death. Contents:FanshaweSeptimius FeltonThe Ancestral FootstepThe Dolliver Romance

This is the annotated edition including a rare and extensive biographical essay on the author, as well as an introductory to the book written by George Parsons Lathrop.In Hawthornes "French and Italian Note-Books" the daily experience of his Italian sojourn, and the mute life of painting and sculpture as it stood to be reviewed by his eye, are set down precisely as they presented themselves to him at the time. They end the series of Hawthornes journals; since, on his return to America, the Civil War so absorbed his thoughts that he was unable to continue memoranda of this kind.

"The Scarlet Letter" is a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1850 and considered a masterpiece of American literature and a classic moral study.The year is 1642. Boston is a Puritan settlement, and one of its citizens, Hester Prynne, is led from the prison to the scaffold to stand in judgement before the town magistrates. In her arms, she carries her infant daughter Pearl, whose birth has sparked this inquiry. On the scaffold, Hester refuses to reveal the name of the childs father. As punishment, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A that marks her as an adulteress...