Gothic Elements And Religion In Nathaniel Hawthorne S Fiction

A subtle portrait of Hawthorne, with a detailed discussion of the influence of Puritanism & Romanticism on his work.

With its roots in Romanticism, antiquarianism, and the primacy of the imagination, the Gothic genre originated in the 18th century, flourished in the 19th, and continues to thrive today. This reference is designed to accommodate the critical and bibliographical needs of a broad spectrum of users, from scholars seeking critical assistance to general readers wanting an introduction to the Gothic, its abundant criticism, and the present state of Gothic Studies. The volume includes alphabetically arranged entries on more than 50 Gothic writers from Horace Walpole to Stephen King. Entries for Russian, Japanese, French, and German writers give an international scope to the book, while the focus on English and American literature shows the dynamic nature of Gothicism today. Each of the entries is devoted to a particular author or group of authors whose works exhibit Gothic elements, beginning with a primary bibliography of works by the writer, including modern editions. This section is followed by a critical essay, which examines the author's use of Gothic themes, the author's place in the Gothic tradition, and the critical reception of the author's works. The entries close with selected, annotated bibliographies of scholarly studies. The volume concludes with a timeline and a bibliography of the most important broad scholarly works on the Gothic.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic of gothic literature follows the Pyncheon family in pre- and post-colonial New England, in their ancestral home; the titular House of the Seven Gables. Published in 1851 at the height of the Gothic fiction craze, Hawthorne's book follows two time frames: one involves flashbacks to the late 17th century, while the other is set in the author's present day of the mid-19th century. We witness the events leading up to the Salem witch trials, and the construction of a house which came to epitomise the foreboding gloom of late Gothic architecture. We hear how the very construction of the house was unjust, the land was seized from its rightful owner via cynical accusations of witchcraft. The newly-built mansion is thought to harbor a curse when Colonel Pyncheon dies during its housewarming party. Thereafter this event overshadows the lives of the Pyncheon family members, who begin to feel the house and its grim legacy weigh on their shoulders.

A family burdened by the sins of their forebears seeks redemption in this Gothic masterpiece from one of the most influential voices in American literature In a small New England town, the haunted halls of Pyncheon House trap its current owners—Hepzibah Pyncheon and her brother, Clifford—in an atmosphere of gloom and despair. Two hundred years ago, their ancestor seized the property from a man sentenced to death for practicing witchcraft. At his execution, the man placed a curse on the Pyncheons, and the family has been plagued by tragedy ever since. Enlivened by the arrival of Phoebe, a pretty young relative who begins a tentative romance with Holgrave, their mysterious attic lodger, Hepzibah and Clifford hope that the curse has finally lifted. But before a new day can dawn, they must first contend with Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, whose greed and treachery threaten to doom the family forevermore. Inspired by the role his ancestors played in the Salem witch trials, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The House of the Seven Gables to explore the complicated legacy of the Puritans. First published in 1851, his savage indictment of the darkness at the heart of the American dream is more powerful than ever. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Welcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most important and meaningful novels of Nathaniel Hawthornewhich areThe Scarlett Letter andThe Marble Faun. Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short-story writer who was a master of the allegorical and symbolic tale. One of the greatest fiction writers in American literature. Novels selected for this book: - The Scarlett Letter - The Marble Faun This is one of many books in the seriesEssential Novelists. If you liked this book, look for the other titles in the series, we are sure you will like some of the authors.

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is an American novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is generally considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery, refuses to name the father, and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores questions of grace, legalism, sin and guilt.

This is the extended annotated edition including a rare and extensive biographical essay on the author, as well as an introductory to the book written by George Parsons Lathrop. This book, which the author himself preferred to his previous novel, is of quieter tone than "The Scarlet Letter." It is more minutely elaborated, and its pathos depends more on the peculiar temperaments of its characters. The scene is laid in Salem, and the house, which much e ort has been made to identify, corresponds in many points to an old dwelling formerly standing there, known as the Curwen House, and sometimes called "the old witch-house." Engravings from a picture of it are used as illustrations of the book. Some points in the story corresponding to the history of the Hawthornes were noted in the beginning of this sketch. The character of Clifford and the problem of his strange destiny, the mockery of fate, which, having adapted him so delicately to an existence of sensuous refinement, stripped him in his youth, at one brutal stroke, of everything fair in life, and threw him among the lowest and coarsest surroundings, is the great study of the book. Its pervading thought is the theory of inheritance, the repetition of an original type now and then down a family line, and the curse of wrong-doing, blasting innocent lives when wronger and wronged are dust. The characters of Hepzibah and Phoebe are beautiful types, strongly contrasted on the surface, but having at bottom an intimate kinship in moral uprightness and capacity for devotion. That of Judge Pyncheon also is exquisitely worked out in the subtle self-deception of the hypocrite, -no character being so great a favorite in fiction, and none so often badly drawn, as that of the hypocrite, because it looks so much more easy and uncomplicated than it is."