Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804—1864) was an American novelist and short-story writer in the 19th century, born in Salem, Massachusetts. He was one of the great masters of American fiction. His novels and tales are penetrating explorations of moral and spiritual conflicts.
Four of his novels are considered as the most significant ones. In 1842 he married Sophia Peabody, and they settled in Concord. There he wrote the tales and sketches in the collection Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). In order to earn a livelihood Hawthorne served as surveyor of the port at Salem (1846–49), where he began writing his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter (1850), which is often considered the first American psychological novel. In the next year, he wrote The House of the Seven Gables (1851), which story took place in the New England of his own period. Then, Hawthorne completed The Blithedale Romance (1852), a novel based on his Brook Farm experience. And a visit to Italy resulted in the novel The Marble Faun (1860).
His short stories won notice and were collected in Twice-Told Tales (1837; second series, 1842). Among his most brilliant stories are The Minister's Black Veil, Roger Malvin's Burial, Young Goodman Brown, Rappaccini's Daughter, The Great Stone Face, and Ethan Brand.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was greatly influenced by Puritanism, Transcendentalism and Mysticism, which can be traced in his works.
|
