The Birth Mark

The Birthmark deals with the husband's deeply negative obsession of his wife's outer appearances and what does that entail for these two young couples. The birthmark represents various things throughout the story. Two of the main representations are imperfection and mortality. American novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne's (1804–1864) writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. Hawthorne has also written a few poems which many people are not aware of. His works are considered to be part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, Dark romanticism. His themes often centre on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity.

A stimulating examination of early American literature

A young booby bird, born with an unusual birthmark, teaches the Galapagos Islands animals that it's not important what you look like but what comes from the heart.

Mosses from an Old Manse is a short story collection by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1846. The collection included several previously-published short stories and was named in honor of The Old Manse where Hawthorne and his wife lived for the first three years of their marriage. Stories include: The Birthmark; Young Goodman Brown; Rappaccini's Daughter; Mrs. Bullfrog; The Celestial Railroad; The Procession of Life; Feathertop: A Moralized Legend; Egotism; or, The Bosom Serpent; Drowne's Wooden Image; Roger Malvin's Burial; and The Artist of the Beautiful.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In The Birthmark, Text Publishing's first YA fiction release, debut novelist Beth Montgomery takes us to the fictional island of Tevua, north-east of Australia. The Birthmark interweaves the stories of two generations of Islanders- in 1942 young lovers Tepu and Edouwe struggle to survive under the brutal Japanese occupation; and in 2004 teenage friends Hector and Lily fight an altogether different battle with boredom, poverty and parental neglect. Both outsiders for different reasons, Lily and Hector spend their summer holiday roaming through the island's thick forests and around the coral pinnacles on the beach. They discover a Japanese sword, a relic of World War Two, and soon afterwards an angry Japanese soldier begins to haunt Lily's dreams. What does the ghostly soldier have to tell Lily? When she hears a woman screaming in her dreams, why does Lily's birthmark burn? Will the sword be used again? And can the younger generation somehow resolve the crimes of the past?

International Bestseller Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is on the case once more in this breathless thriller of deception, blackmail, and cold murder. Van Veeteren and his associates are left bewildered by the curious murder of a man shot twice in the heart and twice below the belt. An utterly dull man, the only suspicious activity his surviving wife can report is a series of peculiar phone calls. Repeatedly the telephone would ring, offering no answer but an obscure pop song from the 1960s. This siren song would be linked to an identical murder, but the true connection remains unknown. With a cool, critical eye, Van Veeteren pursues his subject across the country, wading through outrageous leads and fruitless tips in this chilling mystery from master crime novelist Håkan Nesser.