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Library of America #10
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels
Here, in one Library of America volume, are all five of Hawthorne’s world-famous novels. Written in a richly suggestive style that seems remarkably contemporary, they are permeated by his own history as well as America’s.
In The House of the Seven Gables, for example, Hawthorne alludes to his ancestor’s involvement in the Salem witch trials, as he follows the fortunes of two rival families, the Maules and the Pyncheons. The novel moves across 150 years of American history, from an ancestral crime condoned by Puritan theocracy to reconciliation and a new beginning in the bustling Jacksonian era.
Considered Hawthorne’s greatest work, The Scarlet Letter is a dramatic allegory of the social consequences of adultery and the subversive force of personal desire in a community of laws. The transgression of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, the innate lawlessness of their bastard child Pearl, and the torturous jealousy of the husband Roger Chillingworth eventually erupt through the stern reserve of Puritan Boston. The Scarlet Letter engages the moral and romantic imagination of readers who ponder the question of sexual freedom and its place in the social world.
Fanshawe is an engrossing apprentice work that Hawthorne published anonymously and later sought to suppress. Written during his undergraduate years at Bowdoin College, it is a tragic romance of an ascetic scholar’s love for a merchant’s daughter.
The Blithedale Romance is a novel about the perils, which Hawthorne knew first-hand, of living in a utopian community. The utilitarian reformer Hollingsworth, the reticent narrator Miles Coverdale, the unearthly Priscilla, and the sensuous Zenobia (purportedly modeled on Margaret Fuller) act out a drama of love and rejection, idealism and chicanery, millennial hope and suicidal despair on an experimental commune in rural Massachusetts.
The Marble Faun, Hawthorne’s last finished novel, uses Italian landscapes where sunlight gives way to mythological shadings as a background for mysteries of identity and murder. Its two young Americans, Kenyon and Hilda, become caught up in the disastrous passion of Donatello, an ingenuous nobleman, for the beautiful, mysterious Miriam, a woman trying to escape her past.
In The House of the Seven Gables, for example, Hawthorne alludes to his ancestor’s involvement in the Salem witch trials, as he follows the fortunes of two rival families, the Maules and the Pyncheons. The novel moves across 150 years of American history, from an ancestral crime condoned by Puritan theocracy to reconciliation and a new beginning in the bustling Jacksonian era.
Considered Hawthorne’s greatest work, The Scarlet Letter is a dramatic allegory of the social consequences of adultery and the subversive force of personal desire in a community of laws. The transgression of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, the innate lawlessness of their bastard child Pearl, and the torturous jealousy of the husband Roger Chillingworth eventually erupt through the stern reserve of Puritan Boston. The Scarlet Letter engages the moral and romantic imagination of readers who ponder the question of sexual freedom and its place in the social world.
Fanshawe is an engrossing apprentice work that Hawthorne published anonymously and later sought to suppress. Written during his undergraduate years at Bowdoin College, it is a tragic romance of an ascetic scholar’s love for a merchant’s daughter.
The Blithedale Romance is a novel about the perils, which Hawthorne knew first-hand, of living in a utopian community. The utilitarian reformer Hollingsworth, the reticent narrator Miles Coverdale, the unearthly Priscilla, and the sensuous Zenobia (purportedly modeled on Margaret Fuller) act out a drama of love and rejection, idealism and chicanery, millennial hope and suicidal despair on an experimental commune in rural Massachusetts.
The Marble Faun, Hawthorne’s last finished novel, uses Italian landscapes where sunlight gives way to mythological shadings as a background for mysteries of identity and murder. Its two young Americans, Kenyon and Hilda, become caught up in the disastrous passion of Donatello, an ingenuous nobleman, for the beautiful, mysterious Miriam, a woman trying to escape her past.
1272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
369 people are currently reading
758 people want to read
About the author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
5,347 books3,511 followersNathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history.
Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to painter and illustrator Sophia Peabody the next year. He worked at a Custom House and joined a Transcendentalist Utopian 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 returning 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 around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States President Franklin Pierce.
Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to painter and illustrator Sophia Peabody the next year. He worked at a Custom House and joined a Transcendentalist Utopian 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 returning 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 around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States President Franklin Pierce.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 3, 2008
One of the reasons I truly love Hawthorne is that you can glimpse the writer in progress. In reading his short stories, you can watch as he crafts and develops characters that star in his novels. It is almost as if he sat at his desk and asked "What if they all moved to the same little town in New England? What would happen?"
That said, my favorite of all his books is Fanshawe. It is identifiably Hawthorne's first book - he self published it, and spent the rest of his life destroying every copy he could find. His sister's diary reports an evening where he removed her hidden copy from her shelf and threw it into the fire. As such, it was pretty hard to find and is rarely found outside of a Hawthorne collection. If you read it, you can completely understand his feelings. The villian is bad because his hat is black and angled low, there are pirates and random dashes across fields with guns for no reason, the female charater seems like a silent film heroine prototype, and the prose is unwieldy.
That said, you can see the potential author lurking in his descriptions of minor characters and the surrounding landscape. If you ever have a free afternoon, take a chance - there is so much more than the Scarlet Letter, and as one of America's greatest authors he deserves more than a second glance.
That said, my favorite of all his books is Fanshawe. It is identifiably Hawthorne's first book - he self published it, and spent the rest of his life destroying every copy he could find. His sister's diary reports an evening where he removed her hidden copy from her shelf and threw it into the fire. As such, it was pretty hard to find and is rarely found outside of a Hawthorne collection. If you read it, you can completely understand his feelings. The villian is bad because his hat is black and angled low, there are pirates and random dashes across fields with guns for no reason, the female charater seems like a silent film heroine prototype, and the prose is unwieldy.
That said, you can see the potential author lurking in his descriptions of minor characters and the surrounding landscape. If you ever have a free afternoon, take a chance - there is so much more than the Scarlet Letter, and as one of America's greatest authors he deserves more than a second glance.
January 24, 2008
Ok, so I only read The Scarlet Letter. I must admit to having a bit of trouble with my comprehension and concentration these days. This story taxed both because the writing style is so old. But I guess it will broaden your vocabulary horizons far enough to aide you in playing this game - FreeRice
Here is one of my favorite paragraphs, an example of the author's humor.
"It was as Hester said, in regard to the unwanted jollity that brightened the faces of the people. Into this festal season of the year - as it already was, and continued to be during the greater part of two centuries - the Puritans compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity; thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday, they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities at a period of general affliction."
Here is one of my favorite paragraphs, an example of the author's humor.
"It was as Hester said, in regard to the unwanted jollity that brightened the faces of the people. Into this festal season of the year - as it already was, and continued to be during the greater part of two centuries - the Puritans compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity; thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday, they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities at a period of general affliction."
August 27, 2014
Hawthorne has a unique and strikingly honest voice that you already hear in his first novella, written during his college years, and that brings his mature novels--all four of which are included in this volume--vividly to life. I've read that many great writers were actually not very nice people in their everyday lives, but as I worked my way through these four remarkable and intensely human novels, I couldn't help but feel that Hawthorne must have been an exception.
Read
January 5, 2008Only God can be the true judge of people's hearts; anybody lesser serves no useful purpose. Thank goodness for salvation! Another novel on my classical curriculum novel reading queue.
October 25, 2019
The House of the Seven Gables *** -- This sort of fantasy/horror/gothic/romance is not exactly to my taste, I bought the book on tape for a pittance. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit slow. After a while, you realize that as soon as something dramatic is about to happen, Hawthorne will go into some discursive discussion before revealing anything.
What’s more troublesome, though, are the characters. They hardly come to life, appearing more as types than personalities. The women worse of all.
Hawthorne seems to have caught the same “dream woman” fever as Dickens. Remove all the praise, applause, commendation, glorification, laudation, adoration and exaltation about Phoebe, and the book would be one-third shorter. I exaggerate only slightly.
This need to present the feminine “ideal/fantasy” in the flesh seems overpowering for mid nineteenth century novelist. Phoebe is beautiful, of course, graceful, and of soothing voice. She cheerfully does chores, and gladly will do whatever anyone asks. Nary does she have a negative thought about someone (unless it is well deserved). She brings a light to every room she enters. She’s of course not book smart, but has unerring instincts and manners – revealing a knowledge of the inner truth of each person. And most importantly, she completely lacks a will of her own but to brighten the lives of everyone else. No selfishness, no pettiness, no weariness, no vanity crosses her perfectly placid mind.
Ugh.
You won’t be surprised to find out that she even brings people religion:
“Forth, likewise, from the portal of the old house, stepped Phoebe, putting up her small green sunshade, and throwing upward a glance and smile of parting kindness to the faces at the arched window. In her aspect there was a familiar gladness, and a holiness that you could play with, and yet reverence it as much as ever. She was like a prayer, offered up in the homeliest beauty of one’s mother-tongue. Fresh was Phoebe, moreover, and airy and sweet in her apparel; as if nothing that she wore-neither her gown, nor her small straw bonnet, nor her little kerchief, any more than her snowy stockings — had ever been put on before; or, if worn, were all the fresher for it, and with a fragrance as if they had lain among the rosebuds.
“The girl waved her hand to Hepzibah and Clifford, and went up the street; a religion in herself, warm, simple, true, with a substance that could walk on earth, and a spirit that was capable of heaven.” (p. 496)
Oh dear lord.
And women lacking any will seems to be a theme. Alice Pynchon has her free will stolen by the younger Maule. She’s so weak, he takes it by simply looking in her eyes and waving his hand. After that, she runs to him on a moment’s notice as his slave. (Everyone else in town apparently just shrugs and says, “That’s normal.”)
By the way: How does one feel sorry for the Maule family after they kill Alice? The Pynchons stole land, the Maules steal people’s souls and kill them. Which do you think is worse? Hmm.
The Governor Pynchon chapter is a strange digression, but one of my favorite parts of the book. It is a little story within the story that you could probably remove and not miss it. But it is strangely appealing.
Overall, this is a slow tale slowly told. If you like slow paced, but beautifully told, ghost stories, you will enjoy this. It wasn’t to my taste.
What’s more troublesome, though, are the characters. They hardly come to life, appearing more as types than personalities. The women worse of all.
Hawthorne seems to have caught the same “dream woman” fever as Dickens. Remove all the praise, applause, commendation, glorification, laudation, adoration and exaltation about Phoebe, and the book would be one-third shorter. I exaggerate only slightly.
This need to present the feminine “ideal/fantasy” in the flesh seems overpowering for mid nineteenth century novelist. Phoebe is beautiful, of course, graceful, and of soothing voice. She cheerfully does chores, and gladly will do whatever anyone asks. Nary does she have a negative thought about someone (unless it is well deserved). She brings a light to every room she enters. She’s of course not book smart, but has unerring instincts and manners – revealing a knowledge of the inner truth of each person. And most importantly, she completely lacks a will of her own but to brighten the lives of everyone else. No selfishness, no pettiness, no weariness, no vanity crosses her perfectly placid mind.
Ugh.
You won’t be surprised to find out that she even brings people religion:
“Forth, likewise, from the portal of the old house, stepped Phoebe, putting up her small green sunshade, and throwing upward a glance and smile of parting kindness to the faces at the arched window. In her aspect there was a familiar gladness, and a holiness that you could play with, and yet reverence it as much as ever. She was like a prayer, offered up in the homeliest beauty of one’s mother-tongue. Fresh was Phoebe, moreover, and airy and sweet in her apparel; as if nothing that she wore-neither her gown, nor her small straw bonnet, nor her little kerchief, any more than her snowy stockings — had ever been put on before; or, if worn, were all the fresher for it, and with a fragrance as if they had lain among the rosebuds.
“The girl waved her hand to Hepzibah and Clifford, and went up the street; a religion in herself, warm, simple, true, with a substance that could walk on earth, and a spirit that was capable of heaven.” (p. 496)
Oh dear lord.
And women lacking any will seems to be a theme. Alice Pynchon has her free will stolen by the younger Maule. She’s so weak, he takes it by simply looking in her eyes and waving his hand. After that, she runs to him on a moment’s notice as his slave. (Everyone else in town apparently just shrugs and says, “That’s normal.”)
By the way: How does one feel sorry for the Maule family after they kill Alice? The Pynchons stole land, the Maules steal people’s souls and kill them. Which do you think is worse? Hmm.
The Governor Pynchon chapter is a strange digression, but one of my favorite parts of the book. It is a little story within the story that you could probably remove and not miss it. But it is strangely appealing.
Overall, this is a slow tale slowly told. If you like slow paced, but beautifully told, ghost stories, you will enjoy this. It wasn’t to my taste.
March 21, 2016
This is the kind of book you are most likely to find at a library. It contains five of Hawthorne’s most famous and probably best novels. I got it because there were two of them on my booklist that I had not read yet. As the old part of the booklist gets narrowed down, there are fewer opportunities to mark off multiple titles by reading a single volume. In fact, many of the remaining books are just the opposite – a single title turns out to consist of three or more separate books.
That said, here are my thoughts on the five novels in this collection:
Fanshawe
Rating 3.0
According to the notes, Hawthorne paid to have this novel published. He was reportedly ashamed of this, his first published full-length work. His name did not appear on the title page of the original, and he later tried to destroy all copies of it. It is supposed to be difficult to find except in collections such as this one.
I have a hard time trying to understand what he had to be ashamed of. It was probably never a contender for the honor of ‘the great American novel’ even in 1828 when it was first published. But in spite of a somewhat slow opening it is a solid story. There are some gentle twists to the plot that you don’t expect even though you can spot some aspects of the ending coming almost from the beginning. It is not, however, trite, boring, or formulaic. This one was never on my to-read list, but was an enjoyable read nevertheless.
The Scarlet Letter
Rating 3.5
This novel, published in 1850, does, or at least once did, have some claim to be considered ‘the great American novel’. School children have found it required –or at least suggested – reading almost ever since, probably because of the exploration of moral themes in it. When I first read The Scarlet Letter back in high school, I didn’t like it that much because it was such a dark story, despite mostly taking place out in the fresh air and sunshine. On re-reading it, I find I was not scared by it as much as I was the first time, but didn’t like it much better. It has for me the air of almost a psychological horror story, as perhaps it was intended to.
The House of the Seven Gables
Rating 4.5
OK, I have to admit that I didn’t actually read this novel in this edition, due to time constraints (needing to get the book ready to return to the library). I did, however, previously read The House of the Seven Gables in a stand-alone edition, and it remains my favorite Hawthorne novel.
The Blithedale Romance
Rating 3.0
This book, published in 1852 is based loosely on Hawthorne’s earlier participation in the Brook Farm commune. The narrator, a Miles Coverdale, tells the story of his relationship (or non-relationship more like) with three of the fellow members of the Blithedale commune. One of these, a ‘philanthropist’ nurses Coverdale through an early illness, but loses interest in him when he fails to subscribe completely to the philanthropist’s pet project of starting an institution of some sort for the rehabilitation of criminals. The other two, young ladies, turn out to be sisters, but Coverdale has to do some detective work back in town to discover this. The older woman, Zenobia, is thought to be wealthy, and does subscribe to the philanthropist’s project, apparently having pledged financial support. Her younger half-sister, Priscilla, who came to the colony little more than a child in the guise of an orphan, has no money but loved the philanthropist from the start as he was the one deputed to bring her to the colony.
There is a side plot involving a showman who exhibits a creature known as the ‘Veiled Lady’ which he uses in a fortune-telling racket, which I didn’t completely understand. The philanthropist reveals the ‘Veiled Lady’ to be Priscilla on the occasion when he and Coverdale see her in a small town in rural Massachusetts, but except that Coverdale regards the showman as a sinister character, not much more about this is explained.
This novel, while certainly not standard or very predictable even now, didn’t have much punch. The ending didn’t turn out particularly well for anybody, and there was a lot that was never really explained.
The Marble Faun
Rating 3.2
This book, published in 1860, has great descriptions of the art and environment of Rome and the surrounding Italian countryside. Three artists, an American lady painter, an American sculptor, and another young lady painter, whose origins are not clear, start out comparing their friend, who turns out to be an Italian count to the famous statue of a faun by Praxiteles. In particular, they deem him to be of a sunny disposition, but not too bright.
A mysterious man is stalking the second young lady painter. Ultimately the “faun”, who is in love with her, catches the stalker and drops him off the Tarpeian Rock with her acquiescence. This act galvanizes both of them with horror and ultimately comes between them even though they don’t at first come under any suspicion from the authorities. The American lady painter, unbeknownst to them, witnesses the deed, and it also causes a rift between her and the other two. All three of them are consumed with guilt and suffer separately for a time.
It is left to the sculptor, who to begin with has no idea what has happened to unravel all the mysteries surrounding the sudden change in all their relations. The main themes appear to be how the experience of suffering allows the count to become a wiser and more intelligent being, and the idea that confession is good for the soul.
That said, here are my thoughts on the five novels in this collection:
Fanshawe
Rating 3.0
According to the notes, Hawthorne paid to have this novel published. He was reportedly ashamed of this, his first published full-length work. His name did not appear on the title page of the original, and he later tried to destroy all copies of it. It is supposed to be difficult to find except in collections such as this one.
I have a hard time trying to understand what he had to be ashamed of. It was probably never a contender for the honor of ‘the great American novel’ even in 1828 when it was first published. But in spite of a somewhat slow opening it is a solid story. There are some gentle twists to the plot that you don’t expect even though you can spot some aspects of the ending coming almost from the beginning. It is not, however, trite, boring, or formulaic. This one was never on my to-read list, but was an enjoyable read nevertheless.
The Scarlet Letter
Rating 3.5
This novel, published in 1850, does, or at least once did, have some claim to be considered ‘the great American novel’. School children have found it required –or at least suggested – reading almost ever since, probably because of the exploration of moral themes in it. When I first read The Scarlet Letter back in high school, I didn’t like it that much because it was such a dark story, despite mostly taking place out in the fresh air and sunshine. On re-reading it, I find I was not scared by it as much as I was the first time, but didn’t like it much better. It has for me the air of almost a psychological horror story, as perhaps it was intended to.
The House of the Seven Gables
Rating 4.5
OK, I have to admit that I didn’t actually read this novel in this edition, due to time constraints (needing to get the book ready to return to the library). I did, however, previously read The House of the Seven Gables in a stand-alone edition, and it remains my favorite Hawthorne novel.
The Blithedale Romance
Rating 3.0
This book, published in 1852 is based loosely on Hawthorne’s earlier participation in the Brook Farm commune. The narrator, a Miles Coverdale, tells the story of his relationship (or non-relationship more like) with three of the fellow members of the Blithedale commune. One of these, a ‘philanthropist’ nurses Coverdale through an early illness, but loses interest in him when he fails to subscribe completely to the philanthropist’s pet project of starting an institution of some sort for the rehabilitation of criminals. The other two, young ladies, turn out to be sisters, but Coverdale has to do some detective work back in town to discover this. The older woman, Zenobia, is thought to be wealthy, and does subscribe to the philanthropist’s project, apparently having pledged financial support. Her younger half-sister, Priscilla, who came to the colony little more than a child in the guise of an orphan, has no money but loved the philanthropist from the start as he was the one deputed to bring her to the colony.
There is a side plot involving a showman who exhibits a creature known as the ‘Veiled Lady’ which he uses in a fortune-telling racket, which I didn’t completely understand. The philanthropist reveals the ‘Veiled Lady’ to be Priscilla on the occasion when he and Coverdale see her in a small town in rural Massachusetts, but except that Coverdale regards the showman as a sinister character, not much more about this is explained.
This novel, while certainly not standard or very predictable even now, didn’t have much punch. The ending didn’t turn out particularly well for anybody, and there was a lot that was never really explained.
The Marble Faun
Rating 3.2
This book, published in 1860, has great descriptions of the art and environment of Rome and the surrounding Italian countryside. Three artists, an American lady painter, an American sculptor, and another young lady painter, whose origins are not clear, start out comparing their friend, who turns out to be an Italian count to the famous statue of a faun by Praxiteles. In particular, they deem him to be of a sunny disposition, but not too bright.
A mysterious man is stalking the second young lady painter. Ultimately the “faun”, who is in love with her, catches the stalker and drops him off the Tarpeian Rock with her acquiescence. This act galvanizes both of them with horror and ultimately comes between them even though they don’t at first come under any suspicion from the authorities. The American lady painter, unbeknownst to them, witnesses the deed, and it also causes a rift between her and the other two. All three of them are consumed with guilt and suffer separately for a time.
It is left to the sculptor, who to begin with has no idea what has happened to unravel all the mysteries surrounding the sudden change in all their relations. The main themes appear to be how the experience of suffering allows the count to become a wiser and more intelligent being, and the idea that confession is good for the soul.
December 7, 2017
I only read The Scarlet Letter. I understood this so much better as an adult than a teen in high school literature class.
March 14, 2024
I read The Blithedale Romance. Had fun trying to figure out what had happened behind the scenes.
December 3, 2023
I liked The Scarlet Letter better than House of the Seven Gables: SL had tighter focus on fewer characters, as well as more of the dark Gothic New England Devil-haunted forest that surrounds the town, which reminded me of his story “Young Goodman Brown”. He sure hated the Puritans!
I also liked the several endings he suggested for Pearl’s story, and maybe for Hester’s, though the evocation of Hester’s return to her old cottage was convincingly moving.
I also liked the several endings he suggested for Pearl’s story, and maybe for Hester’s, though the evocation of Hester’s return to her old cottage was convincingly moving.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2012
Five stars for The House of the Seven Gables, which I read in a different edition a few years back, but only three for The Marble Faun, which is part Italian travelogue, part art-history lesson, part murder mystery, part gothic romance, part meditation on the fall of man from his Edenic progenitors, and part thinly-veiled screed against the Catholic church and monasticism. These disparate aspects didn't quite hold together. Hawthorne posits his moral, unsullied American Congregationalist New Englanders Kenyon and Hilda---true "Americans abroad"---as paradigms for purity, as opposed to the morally suspect part-Jewish Miriam and quasi-naif aristocrat manque Donatello. Despite some memorable scenes and characters, the narrative just didn't quite gel for me. Nonetheless, Hawthorne's dense writing provides an overall worthwhile experience.
August 24, 2008
this particular printing has some horrendous errors in The House of the Seven Gables, such as duplicate groups of pages in multiple locations and the omission of nearly an entire chapter. i was still able to follow the story, but i'd really like to know about the significance of a certain arched window.
out of this collection, i also read Fanshawe and The Scarlet Letter. quite enjoyable.
out of this collection, i also read Fanshawe and The Scarlet Letter. quite enjoyable.
May 8, 2008
What is not to love about The Scarlet Letter? It is one of those books that gets richer with each reading. Timeless, important, and most of all, current in light of the sociopolitical scene occurring right now.
October 11, 2011
Reading through some of this novel (The House of the Seven Gables) was a slog, and I just couldn't appreciate the long descriptions and no action. Of course, I probably missed all kinds of meaning...
May 9, 2012
I have begun reading The Scarlet Letter for my Book Club. We are delving into the classics. I am just getting use to the style of writing right now. I remember the basic story from high school English class, which was a many moons ago.
April 24, 2007
specifically reading Fanshawe at the moment
May 16, 2008
Re-reading Fanshawe to present a paper on it in June.
April 16, 2012
This is still happening. People being ostracized by society because of life style choices,sad. Strong female character.
August 5, 2012
The reason I like Hawthorne is the universal themes in his novels. His plots are well structured.
July 28, 2016
I read Fanshawe only. It's an entertaining and enjoyable little novel. The characters are not well developed, but the plot moves along and there's an element of suspense. I liked it very much.
June 13, 2021
The Scarlet Letter *****
February 21, 2010
So far just Scarlet Letter and House of the Seven Gables.
January 25, 2016
Love Hawthorne. Read "The Scarlet Letter" but other stuff in this volume I haven't yet read.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews