Choice collection of short fiction by one of the masters of the genre. In addition to the title story, this volume includes "The Birthmark," "Rappaccini’s Daughter," "Roger Malvin’s Burial," "The Artist of the Beautiful," "Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment" and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux." Tales deal with scientific experiment, witchcraft, revenge, more.
Good Condition This product came on time, was in good condition and inexpensive. My school bookstore wanted me to pay twice as much as I paid at Amazon. Save your money and buy this book at Amazon.
Virtue vs. vice and fabulous storytelling An incredible bargain and wonderful tales to boot, vice and virtue were never more complex or interwoven as in these Hawthorne tales. All of his stories speak to the irreversible errors of man, well not altogether irreversible. There is redemption and resolve but not for all his characters. If you are looking for spiritually driven fabulously intriguing stories, look no further. Edgar Allan Poe has a fierce rival.
Witchcraft, Revenge, Guilt, Artistic Obsession, and Humor - Distinctly Hawthorne In reviewing Twice-Told Tales, Edgar Allen Poe wrote: "Mr. Hawthorne's distinctive trait is invention, creation, imagination, and originality. It would be a matter of some difficulty to designate the best of these tales; we repeat, without exception, they are beautiful."
This little Dover Thrift Edition - Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories - offers seven interesting and varied tales by Hawthorne. Actually, only one, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (1837), is found in Twice-Told Tales. This imaginative short story is among Hawthorne's most humorous and is often found today in short story anthologies. Accused by some of plagiarizing this story from a chapter in a novel by Alexandre Dumas, Hawthorne pointed out that his tale predated by more than twenty years that of Dumas, and that he took some pride in that Dumas chose to appropriate this fanciful work for his novel.
Five stories - The Birthmark (1843), Young Goodman Brown (1835), Rappaccini's Daughter (1844), Roger Malvin's Burial (1832), and The Artist of the Beautiful (1844) - are from the collection titled Mosses from an Old Manse. The Birthmark and Rappaccini's Daughter are tales of arrogance and obsession, whereby men of science go astray in their compulsive pursuit of knowledge and perfection.
Like many of Hawthorne's stories, Young Goodman Brown is distinctly American, drawing upon the Puritan influence in the New England colonies. I find this inventive story of witchcraft and temptation to be somewhat sobering as Goodman Brown learns that the mere act of encountering temptation, even if ultimately resisted, may have unexpected consequences.
The Artist of the Beautiful stands apart from the others in this short collection; this story of artistic passion is surprisingly modern. The psychological development and somewhat ambiguous ending is, perhaps, not entirely unlike the writings of Henry James some fifty years later.
I do not recall previously encountering either of the last two stories, Roger Malvin's Burial and My Kinsman, Major Molineux. Although Roger Malvin's Burial is a tale of guilt and ultimate retribution, it does not draw upon the Puritan heritage. Rather out of character for Hawthorne, Malvin's Burial explores the role of the frontier wilderness in New England history. Although My Kinsman, Major Molineux offers a humorous conclusion to these New England tales, this story of the revolutionary period has a serious side also.
The Artist's consciousness...the soul's examination... Nathaniel Hawthorne, as a writer and artist, has a unique effect upon me as the reader. I am a bit put off by his keep-your-distance...this is my stage, my characters, my plot...you may observe, learn, but not participate as experiencer...approach. Thus he is the master artist, displaying his wares...and they are wondrous. The other effect of Hawthorne upon me, is that I seem to feel that his works are as carefully crafted, visualized, and fatefully fulfilled (using all the motifs, symbols, and foreshadowing--as well as irony, psychological insight, and artistic deftness of creative imagination and clever nuance) as Wagner's operas. Though "Young Goodman Brown" seems a bit (just a bit,) too blatant with the symbols and allegory, yet there is something also immensely satisfying and complete in the intricate way in which all the parts fit together. "The Artist of the Beautiful," for me, is the supreme creation in this collection of stories. It is Hawthorne's insights, both about human psychology and artistic awareness and limitation, that amaze and please me. Here is an excerpt from the haunting tale, "The Birthmark," in which a perfectionist husband attempts to remove a small birthmark from his wife's cheek so she will be completely perfect. The husband is Aylmer; his wife is Georgiana. The wife chances upon the volumes which Aylmer has, and one of them is a record of all of his own experiments. "But to Georgiana, the most engrossing volume was a large folio from her husband's own hand, in which he had recorded every experiment of his scientific career, its original aim, the methods adopted for its development, and its final success or failure.... The book, in truth, was both the history and emblem of his ardent, ambitious, imaginative, yet practical and laborious life. He handled physical details as if there were nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized them all, and redeemed himself from
materialism by his strong and eager apiration towards the infinite. In his grasp the veriest clod of earth assumed a soul. * * * The volume rich with achievements that had won renown for its author, was yet as melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was the sad confession and continual exemplification of the shortcomings of the composite man, the spirit burdened with clay and working in matter, and of the despair that assails the higher nature at finding itself so
miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps every man of genius, in whatever sphere, might recognize the image of his own experience in Aylmer's journal." The greatness of that insight is that it not only applies to Aylmer, but it also obviously is something which Hawthorne as an artist of the imagination had grappled with himself -- while still having to live in the practical world of matter, being assaulted by its harassments, sicknesses, weakenings, dangers, limits...and being forced to scratch out something by the way of making a living for himself and his dependents. Yet he feels somehow compromised and humiliated by the ironic joke of having the transcendent consciousness and soul imprisoned in the body's corruptible matter. Here is Hawthorne the Artist expressing it so well in "The Artist of the Beautiful": "He knew that the world, and Annie as the representative of the world, whatever praise might be bestowed, could never say the fitting word nor feel the fitting sentiment which should be the perfect recompense of an artist who, symbolizing a lofty moral by a material trifle, -- converting what was earthly to spiritual gold, -- had won the beautiful into his handiwork. Not at this latest moment was he to learn that the reward of all high performance must be sought within itself, or sought in vain." The insight and artistic sensitivity and psychological understanding more than outshine the stand-offish stage manager and manipulator of effects.
A potent sampling of Hawthorne's tales "Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories" brings together 7 tales by the great United States author Nathaniel Hawthorne. These stories date from the 1830s and 1840s, and reveal Hawthorne, well-known today as a novelist, to be a talented practitioner of the short story genre.
These are stories of weird science, romantic and professional obsession, thwarted love, witchcraft, guilt, and the quest for beauty. Irony and tragedy mark many of the tales. Hawthorne takes us from the rugged American frontier to a sunlit Italian garden. The title story is a strangely compelling evocation of the Salem Puritans and their obsession with Satanic conspiracies. Also impressive is "Roger Malvin's Burial," a devastating psychological tale.
If the only Hawthorne you know is the author of the justly-celebrated "Scarlet Letter," check out this collection. Overall, this book is a good choice both for classroom use and individual reading.
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