Product Description
"Christmas Classics" is proud to present you a carefully selected range of fiction and prose for the most beautiful time of the year. Besides best-known classics we also offer a huge variety of out-of-print books and titles long forgotten. All volumes have been completely digitally revised, optimized for Kindle and include an interactive table-of-contents, if applicable. Look out for more "Christmas Classics" titles here on Amazon.com. You can spot them easily by the red book cover and the golden bells in the middle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Hawthorne and his Allegories
I love Hawthorne's shorter fiction because it is often allegorical and well-crafted. This short story does not disappoint. A quick read, but definitely one that makes you stop and think. And a good moral for a Christmas tale.

spinechilling look at negative people
Hawthorne is the best. This quick read has a man giving cash to host ten of the most miserable souls in his will and each is colder than the skeleton at the head of the table. A. ... Read more

Product Description
From the author who gave us THE SCARLET LETTER and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, here is a comprehensive selection of his best short stories, including:
Endicott and the Red Cross
Young Goodman Brown
Earth's Holocaust
Ethan Brand
My Kinsman, Major Molineux
And more!
... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Customer Reviews (71)

Brilliant piece of American fiction
Nathaniel Hawthorne is my favorite American novelist (well, except for Henry James.But I never really think of James as American, since his works all seem so British...).And "The House of the Seven Gables" is my favorite of Hawthorne's works.To modern readers who are wired for short attention spans and fast-paced, plot-centric, dialogue-heavy prose, I can see where this book would be daunting and difficult.But to readers who appreciate the beauty of language, the importance of meaning behind plot, and an author's ability to transport you to another time and place, this book is phenomenal. Hawthorne masterfully weaves an imaginative, romantic tale, giving us insight into a very specific corner of our heritage that is often overlooked in American history, and of which modern audiences (and even scholars) know very little.
If you're not used to reading the classics, this might not be the best one to start with.But if you've already cut your teeth on Dickens or Austen or Eliot, this book will be a treasured favorite to add to your collection.

Bloated beyond belief
This novel -- or romance, as the author calls it in hopes of getting certain indulgences from the reader -- initially drew me in. There's certainly an atmospheric richness to the haunted house, and the way owning family is trapped in its moldy ruins is catchy. In this sense, it would make an awesome Tim Burton film. But ultimately, I grew impatient with the work and found it slight. In the end, the characters, no matter how richly painted, are painted cardboard, they're maddeningly passive and the finale comes across as cheesy and contrived. (But there is one really cool chapter toward the end that I can't describe without giving away what little plot there is. It describes how everyone in the neighborhood reacts to something that happens in the house.)

In academia, there's a common insult for books: it would have made a nice article. That is, someone had a good idea for a short piece and then played it beyond its proper length. Hawthorne's piece is the same way: it would have made a nice novella. But it's not a novella. It's a novel that's made up mostly of description in ornate prose that isn't particularly charming (like, say, Jane Austen's or Dickens's). So every possible baroque curl is added to the story, to the point that you wish that the characters would, for the love of God, just do something. (They finally kinda sorta maybe do, after hundreds of pages.)

If it were written today, Hawthorne's writers' group would have ripped it to shreds. If it were up to me, I'd recommend cutting back on the description. Starting with the two pages devoted to the chickens.

Also, if you're going to read this -- and it's main interest is historical, as a classic early American Gothic novel or as a forerunner to Scooby Doo -- examine the edition before you buy or check out of the library. Perhaps they were trying to be cheap or trying to hide how many page-long paragraphs there are, but the Signet, at least, jams so many words onto the page that it's a chore to read.

Overall an interesting read
I have never read anything quite like this book. The authors style is very different and amazing. He is so descriptive. Every scene, every event, every little detail is written about in such a away that you know really start to connect with this time, place and people. This is also the books down fall. When it takes 3 pages to describe Clifford sitting at the window, it is hard not to get exhausted reading it. It took me over a year to finish this book because I kept having to stop and read something else for a change of pace. I mean really it is over 300 pages about a couple of shut-in's and their history. Nothing really happened until the last 40 pages or so. But to the books credit, I kept coming back, it was interesting how history and life can affect someone and I wanted to see how it turned out. I would only reccomend the book to an avid reader and someone who enjoy's classics. If you need suspense, romance or action, this is not the book for you.

A time capsule
Wordy, pedantic, familial soap-opera...yes, yes, and yes.

As much is made of Hawthorne's mastery of the English language, his style doesn't translate to the modern reader terribly well in The House of the Seven Gables.Many reviews here criticize the slow-moving story line, frequent digressions, and over-abundance of adjectives.Be that as it may, it's a wonderful period view of New England society.I, too, found the first half to be difficult going much of the way, but the detailed snapshot of life in the mid-19th century kept me going.

It's not a horror story, it's a time capsule.

My favorite Hawthorn so far...
So far this is my favorite Hawthorn novel, although to say that is deceiving.I have only read "The House of the Seven Gables" and "The Scarlet Letter" which I loathed... even seeing the cover of the "Scarlet Letter" brings on waves of nausea which only large quantities of sunshine and a good dose of trashy horror novels can cure.But that was long ago, and I am a much more mature reader now, besides, people call this a horror novel.

They Lie.

This is not a horror novel... It's some sort of family drama/morality tale with a smattering of bad romance thrown in.So is it terrible?No, Hawthorn does have a way with words... but I also believe that he thinks his readers have the short term memory of a melon, therefore he has a tendency to continually bash the reader over the head with an idea until he is absolutely positive that even a mouth breathing troglodyte will not only understand, but also have it burned into the interior of their skull.

Short Summary:Loooong ago a maniacal Puritan leader by the name of Pyncheon falsely executed a local by the name of Matthew Maule by claiming he was a wizard and in league with the devil.As he was hung, Maule uttered a curse on both Pyncheon and his descendents.Pyncheon then takes over Maule's land, plows his house under and builds his own enormous dwelling on top of it - a house with Seven Gables.Flash forward to the 19th century and we have the descendants of Pyncheon, still living in the house and suffering as their family's wealth, status and sanity have dwindled to almost nothing.The elderly Hepzibah Pyncheon(that's a female name by the way) is forced to open a penny shop to try to bring food in.Enter Pheobe Pyncheon, a niece who has come to stay with Hepzibah and is full of life and vitality.They run the shop, do some gardening and entertain Clifford (Hepzibah's brother) all the while living in fear of their cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon who seems to want something from them.

There were some parts of this book I enjoyed, and the over all concept was interesting... the sins of the father shall be paid for by the sons, but there is a lot that is left unexplained.And the reader is never sure if there truly is a curse or if the fear of a curse is what has kept the Pyncheon family down for all of these generations.Their sense of pride is almost a physical character in the book.In truth there is only one likeable character in the book, and that's Pheobe... and Hawthorn is so determined to make us like her that he goes on and on about everything she does, how she looks, how bloody cheerful she is, how everything is better as long as Pheobe is around... to the point that the reader hopes a ghost either gets her so that we don't have to read any more about her or grabs the rest of the household so that she can live in peace.

I understand the historical significance of Hawthorn's works, and his mastery of the language.However this particular book becomes almost as suffocating as the house itself, dreary, stifling, repetitious and sadly... the reader may find themselves searching for a way to escape (much as Clifford does)... lucky for us the escape is much easier than it is for the characters.There are other classics that I would recommend before digging into this one.It's not a difficult read, after the first 15 pages or so the language clicks and you can read it quite easily... it's just not an overly exciting read, nor is it an overly rewarding read.
... Read more

Product Description
A story of love, guilt, sin and redemption played out against the stark background of Puritan New England. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Criticisms on The Scarlet Letter
The book includes great critical essays for students who study the novel. I particularly appreciate the essay about Pearl which offers insight into Hawthorne's development of this character based on his struggles with his own daughter. I use these writings in my AP classes, and they are helpful to those pursuing an in-depth study of The Scarlet Letter.

Good, but not a great classic...
Well, I read this in my Intro to Lit class. It was right after Frankenstein, so perhaps that made me like the book more than I normally would. Or maybe it was just Hawthorne's writing style. He tells us the story of Hester, a woman forced to wear the scarlet A for adultery in early Puritan America. How did they know she committed adultery? Her husband had not yet joined her in America and suddenly, she's pregnant. She refuses to reveal the father of her child. For the next couple of years we follow Hester, her daughter Pearl as she grows up isolated, and Pearl's father as well as Hester's newly returned husband...who has a new identity. Sometimes Hawthorne got so descriptive he went off-track, but for the most part, it's quite an interesting, almost soap opera storyline.

Putting Morals to the Test
The Scarlet Letter puts even the most morally secure people's beliefs to the test.The line between what is really sin and what is "different" in this novel is one that most cannot define at the end of finishing this book.It makes the reader think about the choices in their own life, and the choices they would make in situations such as those of Hester Prynne, Dimmsdale, and little Pearl.The Scarlet Letter has a wonderful way of depicting the exclusiveness of the early Puritans that is not outwardly horrible, but chips away at the patience of the reader until their feelings towards the Puritans are nothing but distain.The novel uses light and dark in ways that subconsciously show what is Godly and reverent and what is evil and sin.So many elements in The Scarlet Letter just capture the reader into wanting more, and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to challenge their beliefs.

A Great Classic
I first read this book in high school, and i didn't like it much, which was surprising because i really enjoy Hawthorne's short fiction. i again picked it up recently, and found that loved it. There no doubt that it is adifficult book to read, Hawthorne requires the reader to think as he reads.everything is symbolic of something in this book. Hawthorne has a masteryof the language that you just don't see anymore. think this is one weshould re-read every few years, as we mature. I got the Norton edition,which helps a little with understanding the story, but most of the articleswere not that helpful.

The Scarlet Letter
This was an interesting book.I liked the plot, but the author reallyneeded to wrap up those words that I didn't understand.I mean, I candefine any one of the words in the book, save few, but using about 5 ofthem in one sentence just makes me too confused to try to get into thestory like I normally do. ... Read more

Product Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook edition contains the collected novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of 'The Scarlet Letter' and 'The House of the Seven Gables.'Includes an active table of contents.

Contents:

Fanshawe
The Scarlet Letter
The House of the Seven Gables
The Blithedale Romance
The Marble Faun, Volumes I-II
The Dolliver Romance
Septimius Felton
Doctor Grimshawe's Secret
... Read more

Product Description
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." Reprinted from standard texts, tales deal with scientific experiment, witchcraft, revenge, the power of guilt, more. Publisher’s Note.
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Customer Reviews (6)

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. TheBirthmark 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. ... Read more

Product Description
The Shelf2Life Children's Literature and Fiction Collection is a charming set of pre-1923 nursery rhymes, fairy tales, classic novels and short stories for children and young adults.From a tardy white rabbit, spirited orphan and loyal watchdog to a dreamer named Dorothy, this collection presents an assortment of memorable characters whose stories light up the pages.The young and young at heart will delight in magical tales of fairies and angels and be captivated by explorations of mysterious islands.The Shelf2Life Children's Literature and Fiction Collection allows you to open a door into a world of fantasy and make-believe where imaginations can run wild. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Unreadable!
As good as this book may be, the print quality is so bad that I cannot read it. Zero stars would have been more appropriate.

Must-Have for Children's Library
I ordered this book as part of a third grade curriculum for my son. These Everyman titles are really wonderful-- beautiful binding, heavy pages, amazing illustrations. I was not disappointed with this book. It is the kind of book we will read again and again and hopefully pass on to the next generation. Hawthorne's rendition of the myths and fables is classic and engaging, and Rackham's illustrations are worth the price on their own.

Even purged of their "heathern wickedness," these tales are a delight
In the spring of 1851 Hawthorne wrote to his publisher, James Fields (of the renowned Ticknor and Fields), proposing a children's book retelling six well-known stories from Greek mythology. He planned to adopt "a tone in some degree Gothic or romantic." In addition, he wanted to make the fables suitable for young Christian children: "of course, I shall purge all the old heathen wickedness, and put in a moral wherever practicable."

I am usually not a fan of sanitized tales--even when written by someone the status of Nathaniel Hawthorne. But, in spite of their overt preachiness and their occasional preciousness, there's something charming and original about these adaptations. Even adults might enjoy these six tales: Perseus's slaughter of Medusa, Midas and his golden touch, Pandora's box (stripped of Prometheus's role), the apples of the Hesperides (or Hercules's Eleventh Labor), Baucis and Philemon and the magic pitcher (which, in my opinion, is the best of the lot), and Bellerophon and Pegasus's battle with the monster Chimaera.

Threading these stories together is Eustace Bright, Hawthorne's college-age narrator, who relates his versions to a gaggle of local children (a couple of whom taunt him for his bumptiousness). Hawthorne uses this framing device to insert himself as his own critic. Overhearing one of the stories, the father of one of the children is not amused, finding Eustace's taste "altogether Gothic" and advising him "never more to meddle with a classical myth." To this critique, Eustace petulantly responds that "an old Greek had no more right to them, than a modern Yankee has," and he accuses classical writers of forming these tales "into shapes of indestructible beauty, indeed, but cold and heartless." If anything, Hawthorne has certainly brought warmth to these old stories.

Still, the reading level might be a tall order for many children under 8 (although an adult can adapt them for reading out loud). Hawthorne sprinkles his prose with salutatory references to his real-life neighbors in the Berkshires (there's even a line about Melville writing "Moby Dick") and with puns and quips that have lost their context. And he gets carried away with his descriptions of the countryside. Hawthorne's evocative passages will surely strike modern readers as hopelessly old-fashioned, although the author realized that he was trying the patience of children even from his own day. After three florid and nearly insufferable paragraphs describing a meadow, for example, Hawthorne apologetically interrupts himself that "we must not waste our valuable pages with any more talk about the spring-time and the wild flowers. There is something, we hope, more interesting to be talked about."

What's more interesting, of course, are the stories of Greek gods and monsters and flying horses. Fortunately for readers young and old, Hawthorne mostly stays away from the scenery and sticks to the legends.

Excellent retellings of Greek myths
Once upon a time (I was about 8), a family friend handed down his Collier's Junior Classic series to me - each volume is a glorious hodgepodge of short stories from here, there, and everywhere. I got to be very fond of Greek mythology, especially "The Chimaera" and "The Miraculous Pitcher", since the Collier retellings of their respective legends were much more lively than the ordinary.

Alas, I forgot the name of the author of "The Chimaera", and even that my favourite versions of the myths were all written by the same person. Some talented guy writing for the series, no doubt, I would have said, if I'd thought about it. A couple of years ago, I started browsing through an impressive-looking illustrated volume of mythology in a bookstore (which you now see before you). Whoa. "Scarlet Letter" Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote *THESE*?

His retellings of Greek myths were originally spread over 2 volumes (the other being _Tanglewood Tales_), but they can be obtained in a single volume these days. I can personally do without the gang of Tanglewood kids providing the official audience for the stories-within-a-story, or the defense against critics put into the mouth of the storyteller Eustace Bright, but then I want more space for more myths. :) Each myth in _A Wonder Book_ has an Introductory and After the Story section where the storyteller leads up to the tale, then fends off any awkward questions from his young audience.

"The Gorgon's Head" - The story of Perseus, from his infancy through the quest for Medusa's head. Hawthorne skates delicately past the question of who put Perseus and his mother, Danae, in a chest and abandoned them on the sea, let alone why (toned down for kids, and all that), and of course doesn't go into detail about what mischief Polydectes might intend if Perseus can be got out of the way.

Hawthorne is otherwise thorough about details: he even includes the Three Gray Women, who share the use of a single eye, who had to be persuaded to reveal the location of the monsters whose gaze turns living creatures to stone.

"The Golden Touch" - The Midas legend, of how a king, blinded by a love of gold, foolishly asked Apollo that he be given the gift of turning things into gold with a touch. Be careful what you ask for...

"The Paradise of Children" - The story of Pandora's box. Hawthorne's version, much as I like his other mythological tales, has been prettified a little too much: everyone in the world was a child who never grew up, before the box arrived.

"The Three Golden Apples" - The 11th labour of Hercules, wherein the king sent him to fetch the apples of the Hesperides. The tale begins with Hercules meeting a band of nymphs, who hear his account (only briefly summarized, alas) of his preceding labours before directing him to the one person who can direct him to the garden: the Old Man of the Sea...

"The Miraculous Pitcher" - Philemon and his wife Bauchis have grown old together - the only kindly folk living for a good way around a prosperous village, whose inhabitants delight in tormenting vagabonds (although they'll fawn on wealthy-looking strangers). Then one day a ragged youth called Quicksilver and a taciturn man with an appearance of great wisdom are driven out of the village...

"The Chimaera" - Bellerophon's pursuit of Pegasus, whom he seeks because only in the air does he have a chance of killing the monstrous chimaera. Bellerophon's long wait beside the fountain of Pirene, where Pegasus descends to drink, is enlivened by several characters living round about: an old man who can't even remember his glory days, an overly timid maiden who'd run from anything unusual, a yokel who only appreciates plowhorses, and a little boy (the only one who really believes in Pegasus).

A little-known gem of thrills for all ages
One day last week, I could not, even after hours of deliberation (the snow had made engagements scarce), decide what book to read next. I finally came upon this little volume on the end of my parent's bookshelf and decided to give it try. How could I have known what charms were in store? I felt like a little girl again, and as Eustace Bright, the ambitious college student who narrates these tales, held his little auditors in awe, my eyes, too, were wide with wonder. It truly is a "wonder book," full of high fantasy, thrilling action, and the inimitable imagery of a master. Though geared towards "boys and girls," Hawthorne explains in his introduction that "children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple . . . It is only the artificial and complex that bewilder them." Indeed; the book hardly condescends, and so will gently stretch the middle-grader's vocabulary. But readers -- or listeners -- of all ages will delight in this collection of tales, for I was equally, if not more, entertained by the introductories and postludes to each story, which relate the antics and dialogue of Eustace and the little children he entertains. These interludes also expand the stories by slipping in commentary and interpretation.

Don't pass this one by; it will truly win your heart, whoever you may be! ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General; Travel / General; Poetry / General; Literary Collections / American / General; Literary Collections / Essays; Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / American / General; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Travel / General; Travel / Essays ... Read more

Product Description
1996 - Bantam Classic - Paperback - 1st BC Edition - The Scarlet Letter - By Nathaniel Hawthorne - First American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic - Humanity's Unending struggle with sin, guilt & pride - Vg Condition - Rare - Collectible ... Read more

Product Description
The Portable Hawthorne includes writings from each major stage in the career of Nathaniel Hawthorne: a number of his most intriguing early tales, all of The Scarlet Letter, excerpts from his three subsequently published romances—The House of Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun—as well as passages from his European journals and a sampling of his last, unfinished works. The editor’s introduction and head notes trace the evolution of Hawthorne’s writing over the course of his long career: from the tales, to their apotheosis in The Scarlet Letter, through his popular romances, to his private journals and frustrated attempts at another romance. Readers looking for a critical vantage point from which to see Hawthorne whole—his artistic rise, triumph, and sad decline—can find it in this collection. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / General; Fiction / Classics; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

over priced book
My daughter purchased this book for school. When it arived I could not believe she paid $26.45 for a small paperback. This is completly over priced. she could have purchased at a local book store for $11.95, but she trusted the Amazon site to be a good deal. ... Read more

Product Description
The Scarlet Letter: The Manga Edition will be a hit with both manga readers and in the classroom. A four-page essay at the beginning ties the novel and manga together; the rest of the book is taken up with the manga novel itself. So, there should be strong carryover between those people who are manga readers and those teachers/students who want a new and unique way to read the plays.

Our The Scarlet Letter manga is true to the original context of the play--we don't take Hester and Pearl and set them in a setting/time that's not relevant to Hawthorne's original and intended time/setting. You could say that ours is "true" to the novel. ... Read more

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:CHAPTER III.Doctor Geimshawe, after the foregone scene, began a practice of conversing more with the children than formerly; directing his discourse chiefly to Ned, although Elsie's vivacity and more outspoken and demonstrative character made her take quite as large a share in the conversation as he.The Doctor's communications referred chiefly to a village, or neighborhood, or locality in England, which he chose to call Newnham; although he told the children that this was not the real name, which, for reasons best known to himself, he wished to conceal . Whatever the name were, he seemed to know the place so intimately, that the children, as a matter of course, adopted the conclusion that it was his birthplace, and the spot where he had spent his schoolboy days, and had lived until some inscrutable reason had impelled him to quit its ivy-grown antiquity, and all the aged beauty and strength that he spoke of, and to cross the sea.He used to tell of an old church, far unlike the brick and pine-built meeting-houses with which the children were familiar; a church, the stones of which were laid, every one of them, before the world knew of the country in which he was then speaking: andhow it had a spire, the lower part of which was mantled with ivy, and up which, towards its very spire, the ivy was still creeping; and how there was a tradition, that, if the ivy ever reached the top, the spire would fall upon the roof of the old gray church, and crush it all down among its surrounding tombstones.i And so, as this misfortune would be so heavy a one, there seemed to be a miracle wrought from year to year, by which the ivy, though always flourishing, could never grow beyond a certain point; so that the spire and church had stood unharmed for thirty years; though the wise old peo... ... Read more

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Originally published in 1897-99.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Book arrived as described
...well pleased with the condition of this tome, which was published in 1937...even the dust cover was in very good shape!...thanx... ... Read more

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The Complete Writings Of Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1870 ... Read more

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This is a two volume set. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Julian's Perceptive Tale
This volume as well as the second are an excellent introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne, the man and writer.It's chock full of letters.Sophia Hawthorne comes across as a sweet saint, but Nathaniel's complicated, complex and sinewy.Julian, his son, does a terrific job of grappling with his father's presence and achievements. ... Read more