Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Vintage Books
Pages
363
Description
Twenty four of the best of Hawthorne's short stories.
Description
Twenty-four of the best short stories by one of the early masters of the form, in the definitive collection edited by acclaimed scholar Newton Arvin.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the greatest American writers of the nineteenth century, and some of his most powerful work was in the form of fable-like tales that make rich use of allegory and symbolism. The dark beauty and moral force of his imagination are evident in such enduring masterpieces as “Young Goodman Brown,” in which a young man who believes he has witnessed a satanic initiation can never see his pious neighbors the same way again; “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” about a lovely young girl who has been raised in isolation among dangerous poisons; and “The Birthmark,” in which a scientist obsessed with perfection destroys the flaw that makes his otherwise flawless wife both beautiful and human.
Table Of Contents
Twice-Told Tales
The Gray Champion
The Minister’s Black Veil
The May-Pole of Merry Mount
The Gentle Boy
Wakefield
The Great Carbuncle
The Prophetic Pictures
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
Lady Eleanore’s Mantle
Old Esther Dudley
The Ambitious Guest
The White Old Maid
Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure
Endicott and the Red Cross
Mosses from an Old Manse
The Birthmark
Young Goodman Brown
Rappaccini’s Daughter
The Celestial Railroad
Feathertop: A Moralized Legend
Egotism; Or, the Bosom Serpent
The Christmas Banquet
Drowne’s Wooden Image
Earth’s Holocaust
The Artist of the Beautiful
The Snow Image
The Great Stone Face
Ethan Brand
The Wives of the Dead
Tales and Sketches
The Antique Ring
Alice Doane’s Appeal
Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the greatest American writers of the nineteenth century, and some of his most powerful work was in the form of fable-like tales that make rich use of allegory and symbolism. The dark beauty and moral force of his imagination are evident in such enduring masterpieces as “Young Goodman Brown,” in which a young man who believes he has witnessed a satanic initiation can never see his pious neighbors the same way again; “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” about a lovely young girl who has been raised in isolation among dangerous poisons; and “The Birthmark,” in which a scientist obsessed with perfection destroys the flaw that makes his otherwise flawless wife both beautiful and human.
Table Of Contents
Twice-Told Tales
The Gray Champion
The Minister’s Black Veil
The May-Pole of Merry Mount
The Gentle Boy
Wakefield
The Great Carbuncle
The Prophetic Pictures
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
Lady Eleanore’s Mantle
Old Esther Dudley
The Ambitious Guest
The White Old Maid
Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure
Endicott and the Red Cross
Mosses from an Old Manse
The Birthmark
Young Goodman Brown
Rappaccini’s Daughter
The Celestial Railroad
Feathertop: A Moralized Legend
Egotism; Or, the Bosom Serpent
The Christmas Banquet
Drowne’s Wooden Image
Earth’s Holocaust
The Artist of the Beautiful
The Snow Image
The Great Stone Face
Ethan Brand
The Wives of the Dead
Tales and Sketches
The Antique Ring
Alice Doane’s Appeal
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
363 p.; 7.2 inches
Other editions
Hawthorne's Short Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Paperback)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
Specter and Science:
The tales in this collection include the best written by Hawthorne. Among them it is hard to rate one over another, however Rappaccini's Daughter is near the top. A tale of the natural versus the supernatural with overtones of professional jealousy, first love, and the desire
This story only hints at some of the myriad emotions and strange occurrences in these stories of men and women in settings as disparate as Salem Massachusetts and Padua Italy.
The tales in this collection include the best written by Hawthorne. Among them it is hard to rate one over another, however Rappaccini's Daughter is near the top. A tale of the natural versus the supernatural with overtones of professional jealousy, first love, and the desire
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for perfection. Perfection as desiderata, but unwillingness to pay the price. There are two scientists in Baglioni and Rappaccini himself. The latter seems to have created a new Eden with his garden that is lovingly overseen by his daughter, Beatrice, who is even more lovely than the flowers that surround her. Enter the young student, Giovanni, who is in Padua to study but is distracted by the view from his window: first, by the beautiful purple blossoms of a shrub in the center of the garden that illuminated it with a light that rivaled the sun; and second, by the entrance of Beatrice who made such an impression on the young student that it was as if "here were another flower . . . more beautiful than the richest of them,". The story develops into a question of whether the poison in the flowers (yes, they are poisonous plants) has overtaken Beatrice as well making her dangerous to other plants, animals, and even Giovanni. The question of whether she is a supernatural being or mere mortal is answered by the end of the story, but Giovanni's life is forever changed - how we may only speculate.This story only hints at some of the myriad emotions and strange occurrences in these stories of men and women in settings as disparate as Salem Massachusetts and Padua Italy.
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Call number
FIC C Haw