Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tales

TABLE OF
CONTENTS
INtroductIoN: NathaNIeL hawthorNe aS a wrIter of taLeS . . . . .9
HAWTHORNE’S TALES IN CONTEXT
the taLe IN aNtebeLLuM aMerIca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
aMerIcaN roMaNtIcISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
LIterary NatIoNaLISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
hIStory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
the roMaNce aNd a“NeutraL terrItory” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
aLLegory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
THEMES AND ANALYSES
INtroductIoN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
the aMerIcaN PaSt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
“THE MAY-POLE OF MERRY MOUNT” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
“ENDICOTT AND THE RED CROSS” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
“MRS. HUTCHINSON” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
“THE GENTLE BOY” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
“THE GRAY CHAMPION” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
“YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
“MY KINSMAN, MAJOR MOLINEUX” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
“THE MINISTER’S BLACK VEIL” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124
“ROGER MALVIN’S BURIAL” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
the “uNPardoNabLe SIN” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
“ETHAN BRAND” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
“THE MAN OF ADAMANT” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

the ScIeNtISt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
“DR. HEIDEGGER’S EXPERIMENT” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
“THE BIRTHMARK” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
“RAPPACCINI’S DAUGHTER” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154
the artISt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159
“THE ARTIST OF THE BEAUTIFUL” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
“DROWNE’S WOODEN IMAGE” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
the StraNge aNd the uNcaNNy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169
“THE WIVES OF THE DEAD” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170
“THE HAUNTED MIND” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
“WAKEFIELD” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
“THE AMBITIOUS GUEST” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182
ModerN aLLegorIeS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
“THE CELESTIAL RAILROAD” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
“EARTH’S HOLOCAUST” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
“feathertoP”aNd a fareweLL to the taLe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199
APPENDICES
the coNteNtS of hawthorNe’S coLLectIoNS of taLeS . . . . . . . . .209
Twice-Told Tales (1837) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Twice-Told Tales (1842) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Twice-Told Tales (1851) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214
The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales (1852) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216
Mosses from an Old Manse (1854) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
Uncollected Tales and Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218
bIbLIograPhy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Editions of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tales: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Notable French translations of Hawthorne’s tales: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Other writings by Hawthorne: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Biographies and biographical/historical contexts: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224
Critical works and works by other authors: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224
General reference works and articles in general reference works: . . . . . .229

Mark Niemeyer est professeur de littérature américaine à l’Université de Bourgogne.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804 on
the Fourth of July—an auspicious date for an American author who would
help create a distinctive and independent literature for the new nation—is
most famous for his novel, or more precisely his romance, The Scarlet
Letter, first published in 1850. That work is generally considered his masterpiece,
and it was followed in rapid succession by two other long works of
fiction, The House of the Seven Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance
(1852). In 1860 The Marble Faun: or, The Romance of Monte Beni
(published in England under the title Transformation, with the same subtitle)
completed Hawthorne’s quartet of romances. These four books represent the
pillars of his fame, which grew steadily over the course of his lifetime and
continued to strengthen in the ensuing years. (It should be noted that
Hawthorne anonymously published the novel Fanshawe: A Tale in 1828,
a relatively derivative work with Gothic elements that he soon regretted,
attempting to destroy as many of the surviving copies as possible.) Today,
despite what might be considered the author’s relatively small output,
he is considered one of the monuments of American literature, certainly one
of the most significant writers of the nineteenth century.
But Hawthorne did not begin his career as an author of romances. In fact,
he spent approximately the first two-thirds of his professional career writing
and publishing almost one hundred tales and sketches. Several of these

Hawthorne’s reputation. This first part of his career began when the author
came back to his mother’s home in Salem after graduating from Bowdoin
College, in Brunswick, Maine, in September 1825 (Hawthorne’s father,
a sea captain, had died of yellow fever in Surinam [Dutch Guiana] in 1808,
before his son’s fourth birthday). And his career advanced slowly—in fact,
very slowly. Indeed, the dozen years between Hawthorne’s return to Salem
and the publication of his first collection of stories, Twice-Told Tales, in 1837,
were a time of relative isolation during which he honed his style and struggled
to make a living in a publishing world that was hardly hospitable to young
writers. If, as Neal Frank Doubleday suggests, Hawthorne “may have romantically
exaggerated his seclusion” [1972, p. 11], the author certainly led a very
simple life and had few friends during this early period. As he wrote in
June 1837 to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of his classmates at
Bowdoin and a fellow author (Longfellow would become the most famous
and most successful poet in nineteenth-century America):
"I seldom venture abroad till after dusk. By some witchcraft or other—for I
really cannot assign any reasonable why and wherefore—I have been
carried apart from the main current of life, and find it impossible to get
back again. Since we last met—which, I remember, was in Sawtell’s room,
where you read a farewell poem to the relics of the class—ever since that
time, I have secluded myself from society; and yet I never meant any such
thing, nor dreamed what sort of life I was going to lead. I have made a
captive of myself and put me into a dungeon; and now I cannot find the key
to let myself out—and if the door were open, I should be almost afraid to
come out." (NCE, p. 326)
In fact, Hawthorne’s relative anonymity continued all the way up until the
publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850—and the author remained rather
shy throughout his life, often avoiding contact with the public. As he only
half-jokingly commented in the opening paragraph of the preface to the
1851 edition of Twice-Told Tales, he was, “for a good many years,
the obscurest man of letters in America” (NCE, p. 317).