1804-1864

Presents a biographical sketch of nineteenth-century American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and features a series of essays that examine his works within specific contexts that show how Hawthorne's writing reflected his concerns with issues such as women's rights, the status of children, and mesmerism.

"Nathaniel Hawthorne's reputation has never faded from his appearance on the literary scene of young America. Two hundred years after his birth he remains one of America's most important and influential writers. In celebration of his bicentennial, this new collection gathers essays by novelists, critics, historians and biographers who explore aspects of Hawthorne's life and work. The writers and subjects here range from Louis Auchincloss and Elizabeth Hardwick on The Scarlet Letter to Paul Auster on Hawthorne's journals and what they reveal about his family life; from Harrison Hayford's previously unpublished exploration of Hawthorne's influence on Melville to Carol Gilligan's account of adapting Hawthorne's work for the stage; from Wendell Garrett's evocation of nineteenth-century Salem to a sample of Hawthorne's own journalism -- "Chiefly About War Matters by a Peaceable Man," written for The Atlantic Monthly in 1862." "This illustrated volume features original cut-paper illustrations by artist Pamela Dalton as well as historic prints, engravings and photographs. In these essays, curators of Hawthorne historical sites explore the influence of physical environment on the writer; biographer Brenda Wineapple examines the author's political views, including his controversial disdain of abolitionists; scholar Michael Gilmore views Hawthorne's relationship to classical truths; journalist and novelist Tom Wicker appraises Hawthorne's skills as a war correspondent and journalist Neil Hickey considers the author's ongoing cultural influence through film and television adaptations of his work. Their varied work provides insights into ways that Hawthorne's work resonates today. He's created for all of us a mirror through which we see our culture darkly and by which we, as Americans, may come to know ourselves and our nation -- insofar as, Hawthorne suggests, this is ever possible. Book jacket."--Jacket.

A collection of seven critical essays on Hawthorne's novel, arranged in chronological order of original publication.

One of Hawthorne's great romances, The Blithedale Romance draws upon the author's experiences at Brook Farm, the short-lived utopian community where Hawthorne spent much of 1841. Blithedale ("Happy Valley"), another would-be modern Arcadia, is the stage for Hawthorne's grimly comic tragedy (Henry James famously called the novel "the lightest, the brightest, the liveliest" of Hawthorne's "unhumorous fictions"). In his introduction, Robert S. Levine considers biographical and historical contexts and offers a fresh appreciation of the novel's ironic first-person narrator. The John Harvard Library edition reproduces the authoritative text to The Blithedale Romance in The Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

A study and reinterpretation of the three nineteenth century American writers.

Contains a complete plot summary and analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", as well as discussion of the characters and themes, and includes study questions.

A graphic novel retelling of the classic story of Hester Prynne, a young wife who struggles to keep her dignity after being condemned by Puritan law to wear the scarlet letter "A" for adultress, while her lover is tormented by the burden of an unexposed sin.

Presents an annotated edition of "The Scarlet Letter," the story of a young wife convicted of adultery in seventeenth-century New England, and includes five shorter works by Hawthorne, a selection of the author's letters and notebook entries, and critical commentary.

Presents extracts from essays, reviews, and articles, including both American and British sources, that provide critical analyses of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter.".

Presents Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel "The Scarlet Letter," along with selected short stories, poems, and essays.