Book Description

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an author who continues to present contradictions to the reader and scholar. He was a meticulous observer and recorder of everyday life, yet his fiction tends deliberately towards the fantastical and grotesque. He always identified himself strongly with the early history of New England, yet spent several years in Britain and Europe, and remained fascinated by modern social and technological innovation. Contemporaries praised his sentiment and moral purity, but it is his psychological penetration, verging at times on surreal allegory, which has attracted modern appreciation. Not least surprisingly, The Scarlet Letter has become a staple of the novelistic canon, while much of the rest of Hawthorne's oeuvre goes almost unnoticed-a situation which is surely ripe for correction. This edition contains all the works (fiction and essays and sketches) published by Hawthorne which it has proved possible to reproduce. It also includes the unfinished novels, and the selections from Hawthorne's diaries and letters published by his widow after his death. All of the works have been newly typeset for this edition. Prof. Nick Lawrence (University of Warwick) has written a new critical introduction to Hawthorne's oeuvre, including a chronology of the author's life, contexts for reading his work, an overview of contemporary and subsequent reception, and a brief bibliography. This edition contains all the works (fiction and essays and sketches) published by Hawthorne which it has proved possible to trace. It also includes the unfinished novels, and the selections from Hawthorne's diaries and letters published by his widow after his death. The contents of the volumes are: Volume 1 ( pp.): Introduction to the works by Prof. Nick Lawrence; Twice-Told Tales Volume 2 (314 pp.): Mosses from an Old Manse Volume 3 (356 pp.): The House of the Seven Gables; The Snow Image and other Twice-Told Tales Volume 4 (373 pp.): A Wonder-book; Tanglewood Tales; Grandfather's Chair Volume 5 (336 pp.): The Scarlet Letter; The Blithedale Romance Volume 6 (307 pp.): The Marble Faun Volume 7 (313 pp.): Our Old Home; extracts from English Note-books (first part) Volume 8 (330 pp.): extracts from English Note-books (remainder) Volume 9 (242 pp.): extracts from American Note-books Volume 10 (302 pp.): extracts from French and Italian Note-books Volume 11 (293 pp.): The Dolliver Romance; Fanshawe; Septimius Felton; The Ancestral Footstep Volume 12 (262 pp.): tales and sketches not published elsewhere; Biographical Stories; Biographical Sketches; Alice Doane's Appeal; Chiefly about War Matters; Life of Franklin Pierce Volume 13 (201 pp.): Dr. Grimshaw's Secret (as edited by Julian Hawthorne) All of the works have been newly typeset for this edition. The basis of the texts is the Riverside edition (12 vols., London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1883), except for 'The Haunted Quack, ' 'A Visit to the Clerk of the Weather, ' and 'A Good Man's Miracle, ' in vol. 12, which are based on the online Eldritch Press editions (ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/hawthorne.html), and Dr. Grimshaw's Secret, which is based on Julian Hawthorne's edition (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1882).