The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

The red letter A on her dress marks young mother Hester Prynne among her Puritan neighbors, who demand to know who fathered her child. Rumors swirl, but the shunned and shamed Hester keeps her secret—and his—for years, until a guilt-ridden confession reveals the truth, with unexpected consequences.Set in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, Hawthorne’s masterwork was originally subtitled “a romance,” though its themes include the limits of law, the power of religion, and the nature of sin. Equal parts tragic love story and social commentary, The Scarlet Letter brings to life the undying human need to keep secrets.Revised edition: Previously published as The Scarlet Letter, this edition of The Scarlet Letter (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
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The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

The red letter A on her dress marks young mother Hester Prynne among her Puritan neighbors, who demand to know who fathered her child. Rumors swirl, but the shunned and shamed Hester keeps her secret—and his—for years, until a guilt-ridden confession reveals the truth, with unexpected consequences.Set in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, Hawthorne’s masterwork was originally subtitled “a romance,” though its themes include the limits of law, the power of religion, and the nature of sin. Equal parts tragic love story and social commentary, The Scarlet Letter brings to life the undying human need to keep secrets.Revised edition: Previously published as The Scarlet Letter, this edition of The Scarlet Letter (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
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The House of the Seven Gables

The House of the Seven Gables

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family’s salvation—or its downfall. Hawthorne called The House of the Seven Gables “a Romance,” and freely bestowed upon it many fascinating gothic touches. A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, the novel is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work that Henry James declared “the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel.”
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Young Goodman Brown : By Nathaniel Hawthorne - Illustrated

Young Goodman Brown : By Nathaniel Hawthorne - Illustrated

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

How is this book unique? Illustrations included Original & Unabridged Edition One of the best books to read Classic historical fiction books Extremely well formatted Young Goodman Brown is a famous story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. While travelling into the forest on an errand, Young Goodman Brown and his wife happen upon a Sabbath for witches where they are offered as new converts, prompting Brown to question his faith and trust in his spouse. Set in Puritan Salem, Massachusetts, “Young Goodman Brown” reflects author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s perspective on this dark period of American history.Hawthorne was widely known for his common use of seventeenth-century Salem as a setting for his stories, which allegorically criticize Puritan values as contradictory. Although Hawthorne himself felt the story was not memorable, esteemed authors like Herman Melville, Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, and even Stephen King have praised it as one of his best works. Plot Summary: In the interval of silence he stole forward until the light glared full upon his eyes. At one extremity of an open space, hemmed in by the dark wall of the forest, arose a rock, bearing some rude, natural resemblance either to an alter or a pulpit, and surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting. The mass of foliage that had overgrown the summit of the rock was all on fire, blazing high into the night and fitfully illuminating the whole field. Each pendent twig and leafy festoon was in a blaze. As the red light arose and fell, a numerous congregation alternately shone forth, then disappeared in shadow, and again grew, as it were, out of the darkness, peopling the heart of the solitary woods at once. "A grave and dark-clad company," quoth Goodman Brown. In truth they were such.
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The Marble Faun; Or, The Romance of Monte Beni - Volume 1

The Marble Faun; Or, The Romance of Monte Beni - Volume 1

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

As one of America’s most famous writers and novelists, Nathaniel Hawthorne needs no formal introduction. He worked at a Custom House and joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children. Much of Hawthorne's writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. Even today, several of them are considered examples of the finest American literature.
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The Birthmark

The Birthmark

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

The main character is a great scientist and lover of nature with a beautiful wife whom he loves dearly. However, despite the love Aylmer has for his wife, he wonders whether the birthmark she has on her cheek can be removed.
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The Minister's Black Veil

The Minister's Black Veil

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

The sexton stood in the porch of Milford meeting-house, pulling busily at the bell-rope. The old people of the village came stooping along the street. Children, with bright faces, tripped merrily beside their parents, or mimicked a graver gait, in the conscious dignity of their Sunday clothes. Spruce bachelors looked sidelong at the pretty maidens, and fancied that the Sabbath sunshine made them prettier than on week days. When the throng had mostly streamed into the porch, the sexton began to toll the bell, keeping his eye on the Reverend Mr. Hoopers door. The first glimpse of the clergymans figure was the signal for the bell to cease its summons.
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The Blithedale Romance

The Blithedale Romance

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

The Blithedale Romance, considered one of Hawthorne's major novels, explores the limitations of human nature set against an experiment in communal living. From mesmerism to illicit love, The Blithedale Romance represents one of Hawthorne's best and most sharply etched works, one that Henry James called his "brightest" and "liveliest" novel, and that Roy Male, acclaimed Americanist scholar, said is "one of the most underrated works in American fiction."This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition is set from the definitive Ohio State University Press Centenary edition of the novel.
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The Snow Image

The Snow Image

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

Excerpt: ...you uncivil scoundrel," cried the fierce doctor, "is that the way you respond to the kindness of your best friends? Then let me tell you the truth. You have no more found the Unpardonable Sin than yonder boy Joe has. You are but a crazy fellow,--I told you so twenty years ago,-neither better nor worse than a crazy fellow, and the fit companion of old Humphrey, here!" He pointed to an old man, shabbily dressed, with long white hair, thin visage, and unsteady eyes. For some years past this aged person had been wandering about among the hills, inquiring of all travellers whom he met for his daughter. The girl, it seemed, had gone off with a company of circus-performers, and occasionally tidings of her came to the village, and fine stories were told of her glittering appearance as she rode on horseback in the ring, or performed marvellous feats on the tight-rope. The white-haired father now approached Ethan Brand, and gazed unsteadily into his face. "They tell me you have been all over the earth," said he, wringing his hands with earnestness. "You must have seen my daughter, for she makes a grand figure in the world, and everybody goes to see her. Did she send any word to her old father, or say when she was coming back?" Ethan Brand\'s eye quailed beneath the old man\'s. That daughter, from whom he so earnestly desired a word of greeting, was the Esther of our tale, the very girl whom, with such cold and remorseless purpose, Ethan Brand had made the subject of a psychological experiment, and wasted, absorbed, and perhaps annihilated her soul, in the process. "Yes," he murmured, turning away from the hoary wanderer, "it is no delusion. There is an Unpardonable Sin!" While these things were passing, a merry scene was going forward in the area of cheerful light, beside the spring and before the door of the hut. A number of the youth of the village, young men and girls, had hurried up the hill-side, impelled by curiosity to see Ethan Brand, the hero of so...
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Rappaccini's Daughter: By Nathaniel Hawthorne - Illustrated

Rappaccini's Daughter: By Nathaniel Hawthorne - Illustrated

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne "Rappaccini's Daughter" is a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is about Giacomo Rappaccini, a medical researcher in medieval Padua who grows a garden of poisonous plants. He brings up his daughter to tend the plants, and she becomes resistant to the poisons, but in the process she herself becomes poisonous to others. The traditional story of a poisonous maiden has been traced back to India, and Hawthorne's version has been adopted in contemporary works. The story is set in Padua, Italy, in a distant and unspecified past. From his quarters, Giovanni Guasconti, a young student of letters, at the University of Padua, looks at Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini, a scientist who works in isolation. Beatrice is confined to the lush and locked gardens, which are filled with poisonous plants grown by her father. Giovanni notices Beatrice's strangely intimate relationship with the plants as well as the withering of fresh flowers and the death of an insect when exposed to her skin or breath. Having fallen in love, Giovanni enters the garden and meets with Beatrice a number of times, while ignoring his mentor, Professor Pietro Baglioni, who warns him that Rappaccini is devious and that he and his work should be avoided. Giovanni discovers that Beatrice, having been raised in the presence of poison, is poisonous herself. Beatrice urges Giovanni to look past her poisonous exterior and see her pure and innocent essence, creating great feelings of doubt in Giovanni. He begins to suffer the consequences of his encounters with the plants – and with Beatrice – when he discovers that he himself has become poisonous; after another meeting with Baglioni, Giovanni brings a powerful antidote to Beatrice so that they can be together, but the antidote kills Beatrice rather than cure her of her poisonous nature.
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Twice-Told Tales

Twice-Told Tales

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

The Gray Champion Sunday at Home The Wedding-Knell The Minister\'s Black Veil The Maypole of Merry Mount The Gentle Boy Mr. Higginbotham\'s Catastrophe Little Annie\'s Ramble Wakefield A Rill From The Town Pump The Great Carbuncle The Prophetic Pictures David Swan Sights From a Steeple The Hollow of the Three Hills The Toll-Gatherer\'s Day The Vision of the Fountain Fancy\'s Show-Box Dr. Heidegger\'s Experiment Legends of the Province House: I.--Howe\'s Masquerade II.--Edward Randolph\'s Portrait III.--Lady Eleanore\'s Mantle IV.--Old Esther Dudley The Haunted Mind The Village Uncle The Ambitious Guest The Sister-Years Snowflakes The Seven Vagabonds The White Old Maid Peter Goldthwaite\'s Treasure Chippings With A Chisel The Shaker Bridal Night-Sketches Endicott And The Red Cross The Lily\'s Quest Footprints On The Seashore Edward Fane\'s Rosebud The Threefold Destiny
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Twice Told Tales

Twice Told Tales

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

The Gray Champion Sunday at Home The Wedding-Knell The Minister\'s Black Veil The Maypole of Merry Mount The Gentle Boy Mr. Higginbotham\'s Catastrophe Little Annie\'s Ramble Wakefield A Rill From The Town Pump The Great Carbuncle The Prophetic Pictures David Swan Sights From a Steeple The Hollow of the Three Hills The Toll-Gatherer\'s Day The Vision of the Fountain Fancy\'s Show-Box Dr. Heidegger\'s Experiment Legends of the Province House: I.--Howe\'s Masquerade II.--Edward Randolph\'s Portrait III.--Lady Eleanore\'s Mantle IV.--Old Esther Dudley The Haunted Mind The Village Uncle The Ambitious Guest The Sister-Years Snowflakes The Seven Vagabonds The White Old Maid Peter Goldthwaite\'s Treasure Chippings With A Chisel The Shaker Bridal Night-Sketches Endicott And The Red Cross The Lily\'s Quest Footprints On The Seashore Edward Fane\'s Rosebud The Threefold Destiny
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The Marble Faun; Or, The Romance of Monte Beni - Volume 2

The Marble Faun; Or, The Romance of Monte Beni - Volume 2

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

Excerpt: ...every two touches of his brush, in order to have made the finished picture such a visible prayer as we behold it, in the guise of a prim angel, or a saint without the human nature. Through all these dusky centuries, his works may still help a struggling heart to pray. Perugino was evidently a devout man; and the Virgin, therefore, revealed herself to him in loftier and sweeter faces of celestial womanhood, and yet with a kind of homeliness in their human mould, than even the genius of Raphael could imagine. Sodoma, beyond a question, both prayed and wept, while painting his fresco, at Siena, of Christ bound to a pillar. In her present need and hunger for a spiritual revelation, Hilda felt a vast and weary longing to see this last-mentioned picture once again. It is inexpressibly touching. So weary is the Saviour and utterly worn out with agony, that his lips have fallen apart from mere exhaustion; his eyes seem to be set; he tries to lean his head against the pillar, but is kept from sinking down upon the ground only by the cords that bind him. One of the most striking effects produced is the sense of loneliness. You behold Christ deserted both in heaven and earth; that despair is in him which wrung forth the saddest utterance man ever made, "Why hast Thou forsaken me?" Even in this extremity, however, he is still divine. The great and reverent painter has not suffered the Son of God to be merely an object of pity, though depicting him in a state so profoundly pitiful. He is rescued from it, we know not how
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The Wives of the Dead

The Wives of the Dead

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fiction

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.
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