Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hester Prynne is the adulteress, forced by the Puritan community to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and the secret father of her child, Pearl, struggles with the agony of conscience and his own weakness. Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, revenges himself on Dimmesdale by calculating assaults on the frail mental state of the conscience-stricken cleric. The result is an American tragedy of stark...

First Published in 1860, "The Marble Faun" is the last of the four major romances written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Published shortly before the beginning of the American Civil War, it is a romantic and fantastical tale set in an imagined Italy and revolves around the love lives of the four main characters: Miriam, a beautiful and mysterious painter, Hilda, an innocent and morally upright copyist, Kenyon, a gifted sculptor, and Donatello,...

A retelling of classical Greek myths.

The Greatest Greek Myths Retold for Children

"Dear mother," said Proserpina, "I shall be very lonely while you are away. May I not run down to the shore, and ask some of the sea nymphs to come up out of the waves and play with me?"
"Yes, child," answered Mother Ceres. "The sea nymphs are good creatures, and will never lead you into any harm. But you must take care not to stray away from them, nor go wandering about the fields

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Aylmer is an inventor, the greatest of his age. But his heart is torn between his devotion to science and his love for his beautiful wife, Georgiana, whose appearance would be perfect were it not for the small red birthmark on her cheek. Unnaturally obsessed with the blemish, Aylmer sets out to erase it from his beloved's face-and discovers that his heedless quest to master Nature has disastrous consequences.   A Gothic romance both chilling and...

First published in 1851 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls" is a captivating and classic retelling for children of some of the most famous stories from Greek mythology. Hawthorne followed this first collection of Greek tales with a sequel, "The Tanglewood Tales" in 1853. The book is set as a story-within-a-story with a fictional college student retelling these timeless myths to a group of school children. Hawthorne modified...

Step into the haunting and introspective world of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Christmas Banquet. In this darkly contemplative holiday tale, Hawthorne presents a gathering unlike any other-a Christmas banquet where the guests are bound by their sorrows, regrets, and life's unfulfilled desires. The story follows a mysterious host who invites individuals to join in the festivities, creating an atmosphere filled with both somber reflection and eerie revelations. Narrated...

The narrative of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown' unfolds like a horror film, as the pious protagonist goes to an appointment in the woods near the town of Salem. The author's use of tongue-in-cheek humor serves to intensify the ultimate horror of the story. One by one, a series of revelations shakes Brown to the core. First he meets a figure with the combined features of a demon and of his grandfather, then he sees the shadow side of his...

When two men are gravely injured during the Battle of Pequawket in 1725, one makes a choice that will haunt him for the remainder of his days. Although Reuben and Roger take shelter against a tombstone-shaped rock together, Reuben survives only by leaving his friend to die. Years later, Reuben takes his grown son hunting and is forced to confront his guilt about not keeping his promise to a dying man. "Roger Malvin's Burial" was adapted into a short...