Showing results by author "Nathaniel Hawthorne" in All Categories

The Marble Faun of 1860 was the last of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s four major romances. Set in Italy, the narrative blends elements of the travel guide, fable, and gothic novel. The main characters include Miriam, a beautiful painter with a mysterious past who is compared to Beatrice, Cleopatra and Eve, and Hilda, an innocent young woman with strong moral principles. The sculptor Kenyon has an eye for Hilda, whilst Donatello, the Count of Monte Beni, is besotted by Miriam. Donatello bears a resemblance to the statue type called the Faun of Praxiteles.

Set in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts, The Scarlet Letter tells the haunting story of Hester Prynne, a woman condemned to wear a scarlet "A" for committing adultery. As Hester endures shame and isolation, she raises her daughter Pearl and protects the identity of the child’s father, the respected Reverend Dimmesdale.

On July 28, 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife left their house in Western Massachusetts to visit relatives. Hawthorne and his 5-year-old son Julian stayed behind. How father and son got on together for the next three weeks is the subject of Twenty Days with Julian & Little Bunny, by Papa, a tender and funny extract from Hawthorne's notebooks, perhaps one of the earliest accounts in literature of a father caring for a young child.

Young Giovanni arrives in Padua to discover a lush and mysterious garden on the estate of the mysterious Doctor Rappaccini. Amidst the verdant and exotic foliage, Giovanni finds love in the form of Beatrice - the Doctor's daughter. What deadly secret does the young girl and her father keep hidden?

Many of the tales collected in "Mosses from an Old Manse" are allegories and, typical of Hawthorne, focus on the negative side of human nature. Hawthorne's friend Herman Melville noted this aspect in his review about Hawthorne and his "Mosses": "This black conceit pervades him through and through. You may be witched by his sunlight, transported by the bright gildings in the skies he builds over you; but there is the blackness of darkness beyond."

Miles Coverdale, embarks on a quest for the betterment of the world through the agrarian lifestyle and community of the Blithedale Farm. The story begins with a conversation between Coverdale and Old Moodie, a character who reappears throughout the story. The legend of the mysterious Veiled Lady is introduced; she is a popular clairvoyant who disappears unannounced from the social scene.

Nathaniel Hawthorne masterfully grabs the imagination of children with these timeless tales of adventure based on the incomparable Greek mythological heroes' escapades. The stories included are: "The Wayside", "The Minotaurs", "The Pygmies", "The Dragon's Teeth", "Circe's Palace", "The Pomegranate Seeds", and "The Golden Fleece".

The famous story of a mysterious nighttime journey where Young Goodman Brown contends with elderly witches, devil worshipers, a Black Mass, and a showdown with the Devil himself. Like so many of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories and novels, "Young Goodman Brown" takes place in Puritan New England, specifically in Salem, Massachusetts, during the infamous witch trials, during which dozens of women and men were accused of witchcraft and executed in grisly fashion.

Basil Rathbone reads Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, set in Puritan New England, which addresses one of his common themes: the conflict between good and evil in human nature and, in particular, the problem of public goodness and private wickedness.

A tale of betrayal, revenge, loyalty, and redemption, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a true classic. Hester Prynne settles in a little town in Puritan-era Massachusetts while awaiting her husband’s arrival from England. Hester becomes pregnant, exposing her sin in the eyes of the townsfolk. Her penalty: wearing an embroidered A on her bosom for the remainder of her life. When Hester’s husband arrives in the town anticipating a joyous reunion with his young wife, he instead begins a cankering quest to uncover the father of Hester’s child.

In this allegorical short story, Nathaniel Hawthorne parodies John Bunyan’s famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Rather than take the long and arduous road to the Celestial City, Hawthorne’s narrator hops on the express train to paradise. As he gets closer to his destination, however, he realizes that the clever-talking Mr. Smooth-It-Away may not be who he claims. While a caricature of Bunyan’s original tale, “The Celestial Railroad” ultimately drives home a similar point: there is no easy road to Heaven, so tough it out on the straight and narrow.

Ambientada en la Nueva Inglaterra de los puritanos del siglo XVII, La letra escarlata (1849) narra el terrible impacto que un simple acto de pasión desencadena en las vidas de tres miembros de la comunidad: Hester Prynne, una mujer de espíritu libre e independiente, objeto del escarnio público y condenada a llevar la «A» de «Adúltera»; el reverendo Dimmesdale, un alma atormentada por la culpa aunque digno de la estima general, y Chillingworth, un ser siniestro, cruel y vengativo, que maquina en la sombra.

"To inherit a great fortune. To inherit a great misfortune." These words, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's notebook, neatly encapsulate the theme of The House of the Seven Gables - that of a family whose fortunes are poisoned by its past misdeeds.

The Minister's Black Veil was first published in the 1836 edition of The Token and Atlantic Souvenir. It later appeared in Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short stories by Hawthorne published in 1837. Hawthorne's inspiration for this story may have been a true event. A clergyman named Joseph Moody of York, Maine, nicknamed "Handkerchief Moody", accidentally killed a friend when he was a young man and wore a black veil from the man's funeral until his own death.

The whimsical tale of a witch and an enchanted scarecrow come to life from the otherwise serious author Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804-May 19, 1864), whose themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity. He is best known for The House of the seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter, a story of a proud adulteress sentenced by her stern Puritan judges to wear a scarlet A on her breast, published in 1850.

According to legend, the Pyncheon family has been cursed by their 17th century ancestor, Colonel Pyncheon, who stole the land from Matthew Maule. Maule was later put to death after being accused of witchcraft and the deed for the land could not be found. Now living in the New England mansion fraught with haunted miseries of the past, Hepzibah Pyncheon opens a small shop to pull herself from the poverty-striken curse she has lived under while her brother, Clifford, was serving a decades-long prison sentence for murder.

A veritable library of listening in this splendid collection of American Short Stories! This boxed set includes all stories from Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

There's a moment before the mountains go quiet—when words feel full of meaning, and a stranger's voice almost changes something. Almost. In this still, delicate story, ambition rises gently and vanishes just as softly. The path is steep, the dreams sincere, the end—unspoken, but known.

Obsessive, reclusive, artistically inclined watchmaker Owen Worland spends his entire life trying to capture natural beauty in his scientific inventions. But he is frequently discouraged and set back by the interference of the townspeople, his former master, and the lovely Annie Hovenden. Will Owen ever fulfill his life's goal and create the ultimate perfection?

The setting is before the American Revolution when Robin, a youth arrives in Boston seeking his kinsman, Major Molineux, who is an official in the British Colonial government and has promised him work. Yet no one in town tells him where the major is and he begins to hear some strange stories and finally meets his kinsman under very unusual circumstances.