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¿The style of Hawthorne is purity itself. His tone is singularly effective-wild, plaintive, thoughtful, and in full accordance with his themes.¿- Edgar Allan Poe
¿To this little book we would say ¿Live ever, sweet, sweet book.¿ It comes from the hand of a man of genius.¿-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Nathaniel Hawthorne¿s Twice-Told Tales is a spectacularly rich collection of thirty-nine penetrating stories. With a rare purity of style, these tales chronicle both familiar life and haunted specters through a lens of subtle mysticism and deep melancholy. The title is a nod to Shakespeare¿s line ¿Life is a tedious as a twice-told tale/Vexing the ear of a drowsy man.¿; it furthermore is Hawthorne¿s acknowledgment that these stories all had been previously published in various magazines and newspapers of the day.
Never one to shy from exploring themes of darkness and morality, these stories beg for repeated readings in order to fully grasp their true richness; yet, there is a sheer enjoyment in the subtle, truly imaginative beauty in each one. Amongst this collection are the tales ¿The Ambitious Guest,¿ ¿The Minister¿s Black Veil,¿ ¿The May-Pole of Merry Mount,¿ ¿The Hollow of Three Hills,¿ ¿The Haunted Mind,¿ and ¿Dr. Heidegger¿s Experiment¿ which was adapted into the 1963 Horror Film starring Vincent Price.
With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Twice-Told Tales is both modern and readable.
About the author
American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804, to May 19, 1864) wrote both novels and short stories. His works typically touch on history, religion, and morality. His family had a lengthy history in Salem, Massachusetts, where he was born in 1804. Hawthorne enrolled at Bowdoin College in 1821, was chosen for membership in Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and received his diploma in 1825. Fanshawe, his debut novel, was published in 1828; he later tried to suppress it because he believed it fell short of the caliber of his later works. In magazines, he produced a number of short stories, which he later compiled as Twice-Told Tales in 1837. He proposed to Sophia Peabody the next year. Before getting married to Peabody in 1842, he joined the transcendentalist community of Brook Farm and worked at the Boston Custom House. The pair first settled in Concord, Massachusetts' The Old Manse before relocating to Salem, the Berkshires, and finally The Wayside. Following the release of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, a number of other novels followed. Prior to their 1860 return to Concord, Hawthorne and his family traveled to Europe as part of a political appointment as a consul. He passed away on May 19, 1864.
Summary
“The style of Hawthorne is purity itself. His tone is singularly effective-wild, plaintive, thoughtful, and in full accordance with his themes.”- Edgar Allan Poe
“To this little book we would say ‘Live ever, sweet, sweet book.’ It comes from the hand of a man of genius.”-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales is a spectacularly rich collection of thirty-nine penetrating stories. With a rare purity of style, these tales chronicle both familiar life and haunted specters through a lens of subtle mysticism and deep melancholy. The title is a nod to Shakespeare’s line “Life is a tedious as a twice-told tale/Vexing the ear of a drowsy man.”; it furthermore is Hawthorne’s acknowledgment that these stories all had been previously published in various magazines and newspapers of the day.
Never one to shy from exploring themes of darkness and morality, these stories beg for repeated readings in order to fully grasp their true richness; yet, there is a sheer enjoyment in the subtle, truly imaginative beauty in each one. Amongst this collection are the tales “The Ambitious Guest,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “The May-Pole of Merry Mount,” “The Hollow of Three Hills,” “The Haunted Mind,” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” which was adapted into the 1963 Horror Film starring Vincent Price.
With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Twice-Told Tales is both modern and readable.
