The Hawthorne Treasury: Complete Novels and Selected Tales

by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Norman Holmes Pearson

The Hawthorne Treasury is the most comprehensive selection, available in one volume, of the works of one of America's great storytellers. Beginning with Fanshawe (1828), a work published privately and anonymously, Nathaniel Hawthorne's fiction helped shape the course of American literature. Both Poe and Melville lavished praise on his next books, Twice-Told Tales and Mosses from an Old Manse, collections that helped establish the short story as an important American literary genre.
        With the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Hawthorne's reputation was secure. Set in the harsh Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, this famous tale of an adulterous entanglement gave American literature its first heroine, Hester Prynne.
D. H. Lawrence called The Scarlet Letter "one of the greatest allegories in all literature." The House of the Seven Gables, a novel set in a mansion haunted by a centuries-old curse, followed a year later. Also included in this volume are The Blithedale Romance, the depiction of a utopian community that cannot survive the passions of its members; The Marble Faun, Hawthorne's last novel, inspired by his yearlong stay in Italy; and tales from The Snow-Image, his final collection of short stories.
        Hawthorne's themes of alienation, guilt, and isolation ensure that he remains pertinent, and his writing is infused with a distinct sense of place. As Henry James wrote, "He offers the most vivid reflection of New England life that has found its way into our literature." All of his virtues are abundantly demonstrated in this most substantial representation of his work. --front flap

Fanshawe --
The Gray Champion --
The Wedding Knell --
The Minister's Black Veil --
The Maypole of Merry Mount --
The Gentle Boy --
Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe --
Wakefield --
The Great Carbuncle --
David Swan --
The Hollow of the Three Hills --
Dr. Heidegger's Experiment --
Legends of the Province House: I. Howe's Masquerade --
Legends of the Province House: II. Edward Randolph's Portrait --
Legends of the Province House: III. Lady Eleanore's Mantle --
Legends of the Province House: IV. Old Esther Dudley --
The Ambitious Guest --
Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure --
The Shaker Bridal --
Endicott and the Red Cross --
The Birthmark --
Young Goodman Brown --
Rappaccini's Daughter --
Mrs. Bullfrog --
The Celestial Railroad --
The Procession of Life --
Feathertop: A Moralized Legend --
Egotism; or, The Bosom Serpent --
Drowne's Wooden Image --
Roger Malvin's Burial --
The Artist of the Beautiful --
The Scarlet Letter --
The House of Seven Gables --
The Blithedale Romance --
The Snow-Image: A Childish Miracle --
The Great Stone Face --
Ethan Brand --
The Canterbury Pilgrims --
The Devil in Manuscript --
My Kinsman, Major Molineux --
The Marble Faun.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, Anthologies, American

1409 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 1937

About the author

Nathaniel 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.

Reviews

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fanshawe - I can't imagine anyone reading this today were it not by Nathaniel Hawthorne. When he wrote this he was barely out of college, and he would later try to destroy every copy in existence. I can see glimmers of the genius he'd later display in his novels and short stories. I first saw that in the confrontation between "the Angler" and Hugh Crombie: "Your good resolutions were always like cobwebs, and your evil habits like five-inch cables." Great line--and I can see some of the classic Hawthorne themes here concerning good and evil and redemption. But oh, the melodrama! And his heroine Ellen Langton is a rather dull, insipid, damsel-in-distress. There's also far too much tell, not show here--Hawthorne would get much, much better. Two Stars

The Scarlet Letter - Hester Prynne is a heroine with a capital A. I was puzzled when in my recent read of Ahab's Wife Hawthorne was depicted as, well, puritanical and that critics consider the novel as patriarchal in its sentiments, because my memory of the novel was that Hawthorne's sympathies, even admiration, was with Hester. After a recent reread I saw no reason to change my mind, even if I can see flaws. Among them the "introductory sketch," "The Custom-House" framing the story I found pointless and boring. And admittedly, there are melodramatic romantic touches I found a bit much. (A capital "A" in the sky? Really Hawthorne?) Past that first chapter though, I immediately found myself gripped by the story and by Hester. It's not a long novel--about 88 thousand words, about 150 pages. We first meet Hester coming out of a prison door by which are roses that legend said bloomed at the feet of the martyred Ann Hutchinson, banished from the Puritans' Massachusetts Bay Colony for her heresies and her daring in preaching despite her female sex. Early on is mentioned that not far past is the Elizabethian Age in which a woman ruled. Hester comes out of that prison with a Scarlet "A" emblazoned on her bosom, and I can't help but admire that this is no small, demure "A" but one Hester herself elaborately embroidered with golden thread. She refuses to name the man that shares her sin even though it would mean she could take that letter off her dress rather than wear it the rest of her life. She names the child of that adultery Pearl after the "pearl of great price" and fights to keep her when the authorities are thinking of taking her child away. Hester stays true to herself throughout and never runs away. Five Stars

The House of Seven Gables - This tale of a family curse is, believe it or not, a lot sunnier than The Scarlet Letter. There so much that's rich here. The vocabulary, the imagery and certain scenes are burned into my memory--particularly that of Judge Pynchon seated in a certain oak chair. It would take Hitchcock or Spielberg to do justice to that scene. And poor Hepzibah and Clifford are such vivid characters--as are even minor secondary characters like the small urchin Ned Higgins who provides some of the humor in the story. Phoebe alas is only the usual 19th century heroine, such an angel you expect birds to weave ribbons into her hair. I found the romance fairly predictable. But there's a lot more to the book than that. I especially found interesting the theme--touched upon by both Clifford and Holgrave--of how the weight of history, ancestry, heredity, even just the stones of an old manse can crush individuals and families beneath them. Four and a Half Stars

The Blithedale Romance - Blithedale is the name of a commune in which this story takes place. But it's only backdrop, not really the subject, and that disappointed me. Why bother having that as your setting if it's not tightly woven into your plot and theme? It's supposedly based on Hawthorne's own experiences on Brook Farm, a utopian commune. I've read that Hawthorne was suspicious of utopianism, and one would think that was fed by his own experiences, but I felt it got short shrift here. Yes, I can see aspects of the novel that are critical. Coverdale, the first person narrator, has all these puffed-up aspirations that seem to drain away once he meets anyone with dirt on his hands--let alone gets his own hands dirty. Hollingsworth is a portrait of the dangerous monomaniac you meet among a lot of those with utopian schemes. And then there's Zenobia. What a waste of a character. She's the patron of the place, a feminist before her time easily toppled over by love of a not very worthy man. In the end it's all a just a love triangle that I can't really see tying well into a theme about the impossibility of the perfectibility of man. (Of course the point might have been the imperfectness of women, and the impossibility of feminism, but you can't expect me to give Hawthorne points for that.) The ending to me seemed melodramatic and the last line made me roll my eyes. Three and a Half Stars

The Marble Faun - I got through even the not very good Fanshawe, but Fanshawe was little more than a hundred pages, and Hawthorne’s other two novels two hundred odd pages--The Marble Faun is 402 pages, and by page 150, I was feeling it was going on forever. Mind you, I rather loved Miriam--rather rare to have a strong female Jewish character in 19th Century fiction. Perhaps Hawthorne took a page from Sir Walter Scott's Rebecca in Ivanhoe? For that matter it was refreshing to see two women artists who were living--and making a living--independently. But then Hawthorne rather reversed that strong depiction of women with Hilda, Miriam’s fellow artist and friend, praised for being a “handmaid of Raphael” and simply copying rather than following her own vision and thus invariably creating “fancies of snow and moonlight” like women authors... And what does it say that I found such digressions as his description of art and Roman monuments more interesting than the main narrative so transparently about a modern retelling of the Fall of Adam? And if how Hawthorne depicts Jews is commendable for his time, how he portrays Catholics is just abominable--even if understandable for a Protestant of his time. And worst of all is the "marble faun" of the story, Donatello. If ever a metaphor was overdone... Two and a Half Stars

This volume also contains “thirty-seven novelettes and tales” from Twice Told Tales, Mosses from an Old Manse and The Snow Image. No one should miss reading “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “Young Goodman Brown,” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” all classics assigned me in high school as creepy and striking as anything in Poe.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOTE: I read the 1937 edition, so I'm not sure the one selected through Goodreads has the same volumes within.

FANSHAWE: I love Hawthorne though I can't say this is one of my favorites. I didn't seem to identify the allegories for which his works are so famous, but perhaps I am just out of practice with the classics. Classics… oh the language takes me back to my own youth of idealism with beautiful ideas and characters that clearly gave examples (or warnings) of personal actions. Where love may be twisted and the world contains evil, yet still there is purity of heart and honor of character! Fanshawe was a tragic lover, a man of noble heart inspired by the simple beauty of a woman, yet he is honest with himself and does what is best for all, not just himself. Modern books may be of high quality and of deep thought and emotion, but all to often they are clouded with psychology, relativism, and an underlying idea that to be noble is only a rare thing.

THE SCARLET LETTER: A part of me wonders if our fascination with this tale is to malign the heavy guilt we Americans beart about our pasts, individual and collective. Do we read the Scarlet Letter, do we teach it in high school to try to convince ourselves that sinning isn't so bad, that society has no right to judge us? I don't know, it's just a thought. Let's just remember that guilt is a part of religion, not the sum of it. We should neither condone it in excess, not accept its diminishment in society or in ourselves. It is a tool to better ourselves nothing more, nothing less.

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES: I read this many years ago in high school and remember but few details, though I remember liking it a lot (definitely more than The Scarlet Letter). It deals with sin, repentence, and redemption, just as much of Hawthorne's works do. The twist, however, lies in ancestral guilt… how succeeding generations bear the weight of wrongs from the preceding ones. Now of course, it is not logical to be held responsible for the sins of our forebearers, and I believe Hawthorne did not think so either. But he felt it… just as many modern white Americans do for stealing Indian lands and for slavery and segregation. Why is this so? Is there something real to this? Who truly knows? What Hawthorne does show us is that we must break from those sins and make ourselves right by living good and just lives as reparation for such evils.

THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE: Rather than go into an analysis of Blithedale's closeness to Brook Farm or into what Hawthorne had to say about feminism (both topics are the focal point of any online synopsis I found), I would like to just say a word on Hawthorne's use of Coverdale, the narrator character. Honestly, I was impressed on how Hawthorne not just kept Coverdale as an observer to the main characters, but on how little he (and therefore the reader) was privy to. Many plot points are never spelled out directly to the reader, but are left to guess at from the observations of Coverdale. It is admirable, I think, that Hawthorne thinks enough of his readers that he assumes his readers intelligent enough to read between the lines. It is also realistic. The temptation to give Coverdale a touch of his author's omniscience was resisted by Hawthorne. These limitations on plot information which Hawthorne places on the reader are what drove me voraciously forward in the book, as it kept me wanting more than what I was being given on the page. A good technique.

THE MARBLE FAUN: I'm not sure what to say about this one. It's a good story, well execued, but somehow didn't fan my flames as much as Hawthorne normally does. Maybe because it was a late career work, which in my experience is never quite as good as perhaps the third or fourth work of an author (still fresh, but not yet tired or self-important). Again this dealt with sin and redemption, but is very much related to dealing with one's own sin and loss of innocence as compared to the frequent theme of heriditary or circumstantial sin, which Hawthorne is so acclaimed for. All in all, this was worth the read for anyone who would like a full breadth of the classics.

TWICE-TOLD TALES: The most interesting thing about this book was reading historical fiction written in the 19th century concerning American periods prior to that one, particularly of the revolutionary period and before. While Hawthorne is most known Scarlet Letter, a type of this kind of fiction, such historical fiction is not all he wrote. Nevertheless, it dominates the short stories in Twice-Told Tales and was quite enlightnening concerning a 19th century view on history up to that point.

MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE: Another collection of Hawthorne tales. I will say that I enjoyed this one far more them TWICE-TOLD. Of note: "The Birthmark", "Rappaccini's Daughter", "The Celestial Railroad", "Feathertop", and "The Artist of the Beautiful." Overall, I felt that this was an artist at his best, a man looking uniquely at the world with wide and fresh eyes.

THE SNOW IMAGE: I will not speak much. Typical Hawthorne, of whose writings I've written much about already. Not bad, but not his best.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, um, what? It's only Hawthorne.

[Rodney Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five novels and a healthy selection of the best stories. A book I can safely say I will never stop going back to.

[Becky Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had forgotten what a great short story writer Hawthorne is. I checked an anthology out so that I could sample "Feathertop" and "The Great Carbuncle." We should all read more American classics.

[Leslie Balkany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very long volume and I am rating only The House of the Seven Gables. I first read this in graduate school and didn't remember it when I picked it up again. It's very dated, but it certainly is a product of its time. On that basis I thought it was very good.