Hawthorne's Short Stories

Rating:
Summary: Part of Americana
Review: I read these short stories in a haphazard fashion rather than sequentially and unknowingly saved the worst two for last. A few days ago I was ready to give the collection five stars but the egregiously macabre "Ethan Brand" and "The Old White Maid" caused it a few points. These two tales are out of place among Hawthorne's other gems; they seem more suitable to Edgar Allen Poe on a night when he was feeling exceedingly gruesome.

Among the highlights is "Feathertop" an eccentric piece about a witch whose magic pipe gives life to her scarecrow. "The Prophetic Pictures," allegedly based on a true incident, is an intriguing yarn of a painter whose portrait accurately predicted his subject's forthcoming madness. "The Gray Champion," a patriotic tale, must have been a hit with Hawthorne's good friends President and Mrs. Franklin Pierce. A recurring theme through Hawthorne's works is the individual's perpetual battle with character flaws-a motif that makes them suitable to our modern age and indeed timeless. Many of the allegorical elements including the notorious "A," Hawthorne immortalized in "The Scarlet Letter" are scattered throughout these works.

The proem by Newton Arvin offers an interesting biographical summary of the author's life. Much has been written about Nathaniel Hawthorne-unquestionably one of America's finest and most beloved authors, and there is little I can add to voluminous evaluations. However, to anyone interested in building his or her vocabulary, Hawthorne's writing offers a cyclopean lagniappe to dulcify sesquipedalian pursuits. For me that aspect was as beneficial as the enjoyable vignettes.

Rating:
Summary: Heart Versus Intellect
Review: In your face, obvious, and heavy-handedly allegorical, still Hawthorne manages to pique my interest and hammer home his point. Switching from historically based stories ("The Gray Champion" and "Endicott and the Red Cross") to spiritual allegories ("The Bosom Serpent" and "The Celestial Railroad"), Hawthorne continually chips away at the danger of isolation. Although he clearly believed in the fallibility and evil of the human heart--particularly pointing out the religious hypocrites--he also believed that one must continue to risk and be a part of the community. In stories such as "Young Goodman Brown" and "Wakefield", we see the gloom that comes over certain men who pull away.

Hawthorne, like Poe, uses graphic and surreal imagery, sometimes repetitively, to set a mood and draw a picture. His characters and scenes are alive and psychological consistent with his tales, and he manages to wring a moral out of nearly every page.

Heavy-handed? Yes, but he aims to state a message, and he states it clearly: The moral nature must never be sacrificed for intellectual pursuits (Ethan Brand). In a world of cheap commercialism and mindless brain fodder, at least Hawthorne has something to say.

Rating:
Summary: Hawthorne must be read in his historical context
Review: It's easy for our contemporaries to accuse Hawthorne of being formulaic or using timeworn themes. It must be remembered that in Hawthorne's own day, the many of the "timeworn" ideas represented a truly novel vision, and it was appropriate to use many different stories to convey its fullness. Just remember, if you think it's a "cliche," it's probably because you've read a lot of post-Hawthorne "wannabes"!