Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered to be his magnum opus.[1] Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book.
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.
