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1Scarlet Letter

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story begins in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed; it is to be a symbol of her sin for all to see. She will not reveal her lover’s identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)

2House of the Seven Gables (Version 2)

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The House of the Seven Gables is a gloomy New England mansion, haunted from its foundation by fraudulent dealings, accusations of witchcraft, and sudden death. The current resident, the dignified but desperately poor Hepzibah Pyncheon, opens a shop in a side room to support her brother Clifford, who is about to leave prison after serving twenty-five years for murder. She refuses all assistance from her unpleasant wealthy cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. A distant relative, the pretty young Phoebe, turns up and quickly becomes invaluable, charming customers and rousing Clifford from depression. A delicate romance grows between Phoebe and the mysterious lodger Holgrave, who is writing a history of the Pyncheon family. (Summary from Wikipedia)

3House of the Seven Gables

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The wrongdoing of one generation lives into the successive ones and... becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief." Hawthorne's moral for "The House of the Seven Gables," taken from the Preface, accurately presages his story. The full weight of the gloomy mansion of the title seems to sit on the fortunes of the Pyncheon family. An ancestor took advantage of the Salem witch trials to wrest away the land whereon the house would be raised... but the land's owner, about to be executed as a wizard, cursed the Pyncheon family until such time as they should make restitution.<br /><br />Now, almost two centuries later, the family is in real distress. Hepzibah, an old maid and resident of the house, is forced by advanced poverty to open a shop in a part of the house. Her brother Clifford has just been released from prison after serving a thirty-year sentence for murder, and his mind struggles to maintain any kind of hold on reality. Cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon is making himself odious by threatening to have Clifford committed to an institution. And after all these years, the deed to a vast tract of land, that would settle great wealth on the family, is still missing.<br /><br />One bright ray of sunshine enters the house when cousin Phoebe arrives for an extended stay to allow unhappy matters in her end of the family to sort themselves out. While she lightens the lives of Hepzibah and Clifford, she also attracts the attention of a mysterious lodger named Holgrave, who has placed himself near the Pyncheon family for reasons that only come clear at the end of the story.<br /><br />The real crisis arrives when the Judge, who strongly resembles the Colonel Pyncheon who built the house so many years ago, steps up his demands on Hepzibah and Clifford and unwittingly triggers the curse. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)

4Tanglewood Tales

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

All mythology and/or Hawthorne lovers unite!<br /><br /> Here is a delightful collection of charming stories from Greek Mythology. This collection features some very popular characters like our beloved Jason, Ulysses, King Pluto and Theseus (and of course, our favorite, Mr. Minotaur, too). Written in Hawthorne's interesting and beautiful style, these stories will be a great delight to read AND listen to. (Summary by Neeru Iyer)

5Great Stone Face and Other Tales of the White Mountains

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

A collection of four short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the common theme of which is New Hampshire's White Mountains. Consists of: <i>The Great Stone Face</i>, written in 1850 and revolves around the 'Old Man of the Mountain (Cannon Mtn.) in New Hampshire which sadly collapsed on May 3, 2003; <i>The Ambitious Guest</i>, written in 1835; <i>The Great Carbuncle</i>, written in 1837; and <i>Sketches From Memory</i>, written sometime prior to <i>The Great Carbuncle</i> as will become obvious. (Summary by Roger Melin)

6Blithedale Romance

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Blithedale Romance is the story of four principal characters who work with -- and sometimes against -- each other on Blithedale, a communal farm antecedent to those that sprang up later in the 1960s, and similar to one on which Hawthorne himself lived in 1841. These communes arose out of the pressures on society and the individual brought by the Industrial Revolution. Some were organized around religious philosophies, some were secular. Among the secularists, the Transcendental movement mentioned in the novel espoused the idea that the individual's intuition, rather than religious dogma, was the true path to spiritual enlightenment. Our four characters, like so many who fled to these communes, struggle to free mankind from bondage as they struggle with the unaccustomed day-to-day tasks of farm life. But they are plagued by a mystery that follows them from the world, and ultimately leads to tragedy. (Summary by Christine Dufour)

The story is set in Padua in a distant, but unspecified past. From his quarters, Giovanni, a young student of letters, observes Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Rappaccini, a scientist working in isolation. Beatrice is confined to the lush and locked gardens filled with poisonous plants by her father. Having fallen in love, Giovanni enters the garden and meets with Beatrice a number of times regardless of the warning of his mentor, Professor Baglioni, that Rappaccini is up to no good and he and his work should be avoided. -- Wikipedia.

<i>The Marble Faun</i> is Hawthorne's most unusual romance. Writing on the eve of the American Civil War, Hawthorne set his story in a fantastical Italy. The romance mixes elements of a fable, pastoral, Gothic novel, and travel guide. In the spring of 1858, Hawthorne was inspired to write his romance when he saw the Faun of Praxiteles in a Roman sculpture gallery. The theme, characteristic of Hawthorne, is guilt and the Fall of Man. The four main characters are Miriam, a beautiful painter who is compared to Eve, Beatrice Cenci, Lady Macbeth, Judith, and Cleopatra, and is being pursued by a mysterious, threatening Model; Hilda, an innocent copyist who is compared to the Virgin Mary; Kenyon, a sculptor, who represents rationalist humanism; and Donatello, the Count of Monti Beni, who is compared to Adam, resembles the Faun of Praxiteles, and is probably only half human. (Summary by Wikipedia)

9Our Old Home

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

These essays, based on Hawthorne’s stay in England from 1853 to 1857 as American Consul in Liverpool, were first published in the form of a series of travel articles for The Atlantic Monthly. In these writings, he displays his humor, his empathetic nature, his pride in his country, and sometimes his sharp judgment of others. He shares with us the difficulties of being a consul in the 1850’s, takes us on a tour with him through rural England and Scotland, shows us the splendors of London, and the horrors of the poverty that so many suffered. (Introduction by Margaret)

"Mosses from an Old Manse" is a short story collection by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1846. The collection includes several previously-published short stories and is named in honor of The Old Manse where Hawthorne and his wife lived for the first three years of their marriage. A second edition was published in 1854, which added "Feathertop," "Passages from a Relinquished Work, and "Sketches from Memory." <br /><br /> Many of the tales collected in "Mosses from an Old Manse" are allegories and, typical of Hawthorne, focus on the negative side of human nature. Hawthorne's friend Herman Melville noted this aspect in his review "Hawthorne and His Mosses": "This black conceit pervades him through and through. You may be witched by his sunlight, transported by the bright gildings in the skies he builds over you; but there is the blackness of darkness beyond; and even his bright gildings but fringe and play upon the edges of thunder-clouds." William Henry Channing reviewed the collection in The Harbinger and noted that its author "had been baptized in the deep waters of Tragedy" and his work was dark with only brief moments of "serene brightness" which was never brighter than "dusky twilight". (Summary by Wikipedia)

11Twice Told Tales

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Twice-Told Tales is a short story collection in two volumes by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first was published in the spring of 1837, and the second in 1842. The stories had all been previously published in magazines and annuals, hence the name. (Introduction by Wikipedia)

Het werk is een tafereel van het booze in den mensch. Er treden weinig personen in op, maar toch is er handeling genoeg. De hoofdpersoon is eene gevallene, beklagenswaardige vrouw. Het eerst zien wij haar op 't schavot, om haar vergrijp ten toon gesteld. Zij staat daar voor 't oog der menigte met eene zuigeling, de vrucht van verboden hartstogt, op den arm, en eene scharlaken schandletter a, (adultère) op de borst; gedoemd om dat eerloos merk tot aan haren dood te dragen.. Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen. P. Ellerman, Amsterdam 1854

13True Stories from History and Biography

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In writing this ponderous tome, the author's desire has been to describe the eminent characters and remarkable events of our annals, in such a form and style, that the YOUNG might make acquaintance with them of their own accord. For this purpose, while ostensibly relating the adventures of a Chair, he has endeavored to keep a distinct and unbroken thread of authentic history. The Chair is made to pass from one to another of those personages, of whom he thought it most desirable for the young reader to have vivid and familiar ideas, and whose lives and actions would best enable him to give picturesque sketches of the times. On its sturdy oaken legs, it trudges diligently from one scene to another, and seems always to thrust itself in the way, with most benign complacency, whenever a historical personage happens to be looking round for a seat. - Summary from Preface by Nathaniel Hawthorne

14Scarlet Letter (version 2)

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

This book tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman who conceives a child while her husband is missing at sea. The Puritan Elders of the New England settlement of Boston, where she lives, condemn her to wear a scarlet letter A to signify her adultery. She refuses to name her lover, and he too keeps his silence, but with a terrible cost. <br><br>The tale is prefaced with an account of the Salem Custom-house where Nathaniel Hawthorne was working when he began writing The Scarlet Letter. Summary by Cori Samuel

15Totenhochzeit

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Vier Erzählungen von einem Meister unheimlicher Literatur. Zusammen mit Hermann Melville und Edgar Allan Poe zählt Hawthorne zur 'dunklen' amerikanischen Romantik. 'Moby Dick' von Hermann Melville ist Nathaniel Hawthorn gewidmet. (Quelle: Wikipedia) Summary by Bernd Ungerer.

16Wonder Book for Girls and Boys

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

A Yankee student stays at a country house called Tanglewood during a golden New England fall. Also at the house are about a dozen children: younger cousins of the student and their friends of varying ages. The student, as much to amuse himself as to amuse the children, organises games and activities and tells stories. And the stories he tells are wild and fantastic. When his store of fairy tales and folk legends is exhausted he hits on the idea of retelling Greek Myths in his own style.<br /><br />We visit Tanglewood six times during the course of a year and hear six of the student's beautifully told stories: The Gorgon's Head, The Golden Touch, A Paradise of Children, The Three Golden Apples, The Miraculous Pitcher and The Chimaera. (Summary by Clive Catterall)

17Wonder Book for Girls and Boys (version 2)

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

THE author has long been of opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for children. In the little volume here offered to the public, he has worked up half a dozen of them, with this end in view. A great freedom of treatment was necessary to his plan; but they remain essentially the same, after changes that would affect the identity of almost anything else. (Lenox - from the Preface (July 15, 1851)

18Cuentos Clásicos del Norte: Segunda Serie

By Edward Everett Hale, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving

(Segunda parte de esta serie de Cuentos Clásicos de América del Norte, esta vez con la presencia de tres de los más destacados autores del siglo XIX en este género. Esta recopilación de leyendas y relatos fantásticos transcurre entre las nacientes poblaciones e inhóspitos y misteriosos bosques de la Nueva Inglaterra, a la vista de las Montañas Katskill y las tierras bañadas por el río Hudson. En ellos podemos encontrar criaturas misteriosas, casacas rojas, colonos holandeses, patriotas puritanos, cabañas en la niebla... ¿Cuál es la historia de aquel que llaman El hombre sin Patria? ¿Cómo acabará el experimento en el salón del doctor Heidegger? ¿A quién no se le hiela la sangre al escuchar los ruidos que anuncian la inminente llegada del Jinete Sin Cabeza?). (Resumen por Epachuko)

19Rumpty-Dudget's Tower: A Fairy Tale

By Julian Hawthorne

Julian Hawthorne spins a charming fairy tale featuring the mischievous dwarf Rumpty-Dudget', Princess Hilda, Prince Frank and the Queen. Add in some gnomes, golden Ivy-seed, diamond water-drops and magic fire and you are in for enchanting adventures. - Summary by Larry Wilson

20Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Dr. Grimshawe is a spider-cultivating eccentric. The central secret of the book is an all-encompassing spiders web. The central character is loosely based on the author Nathaniel Hawthorne. He always considered the book as unfinished and it wasn't published until after his death by his son Julian. Summary by Michele Eaton

21Lock and Key Library: The Modern English Volume

By Julian Hawthorne

A collection of classic mystery and detective stories, edited by Julian Hawthorne. This volume includes Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Egerton Castle, Stanley J. Weyman, Wilkie Collins and Robert Louis Stevenson.

22In Colonial Days

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

A collection of British aristocrats, soldiers, gentlemen and ladies gather at the Province House inn, as the American imperial possessions crumble around them. - Summary by The Reader

23Cosmic Courtship

By Julian Hawthorne

Mary Faust, a brilliant scientist, has developed a machine that can allow the conscious human soul to explore the cosmos! Her promising young assistant Miriam Mayne has accidentally transferred her consciousness to Saturn, where she falls under the enchantment of an evil sorcerer! Jack Paladin, her love, sets out after her on a thrilling celestial journey to the ringed planet! Swashbuckling adventure and high romance await in Julian Hawthorne's The Cosmic Courtship! - Summary from back of book

24Septimius Felton, or, the Elixir of Life

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Septimius Felton; or, The Elixir of Life was amongst Nathaniel Hawthorne’s final unpublished (and unfinished) manuscripts, discovered by his widow Sophia shortly after his passing. Perhaps the most "complete" of Hawthorne's unfinished novels, it was published posthumously with editorial assistance from his daughter Una and poet Robert Browning. A gothic romance set during the Revolutionary War, this novel centers on a scholar named Septimius Felton, whose monomaniacal pursuit of the so-called elixir of life leads him down a doomed, destructive path that threatens to annihilate him and all that he loves. This edition of the text contains a number of annotations from both the author and editors that provide additional clarifications, amendments, and explanations. Despite having a large number of gaps, inconsistencies, and unvarnished edges, the major thrust of Hawthorne's narrative (with a distinct beginning, middle, and end) remains relatively complete. (Summary by ChuckW)

This post-humous collection of stories, sketches and essays by celebrated quintessential New England author Nathaniel Hawthorne gives us glimpses of the many different facets of Hawthorne's personality. The titular tale The Dolliver Romance was an unfinished manuscript that was edited and prepared for publication after Hawthorne's death and relates the story of an aged man with a small child in his care who swallows a magical tincture daily that rejuvenates his vitality, reversing the aging process. Also in a more fantastical vein are the stories "The Ancient Ring", a legend told of a ring cursed, and "Graves a Goblins", a wryly humorous and moving tale from the point of view of a ghost. In addition, found within are non-fiction essays such as "Sketches from Memory" and "My Trip to Niagara" where Hawthorne evokes a sense of place and time in a most remarkable and vivid fashion. We also see Hawthorne's somber, allegorical side in stories such as "Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man" and "The Old Woman's Tale", stories told with a nuanced touch. For fans of Hawthorne, this collection provides a last look at various works a master storyteller has given so generously. (Summary by Ben Tucker)

Julian Hawthorne, son of famed author Nathaniel Hawthorne, brings together a collection of stories of tragedy, lost love and occasionally of the supernatural. From the sad and bitter remembrances and grim twists of fate of tales like "Set Not Thy Foot on Graves", "Doctor Carajo's Patient" and "A Strange Friend" to the dalliance with a doppelgänger in "David Poindexter's Disappearance", these stories provide the heights of melodramatic woe. Of special note in this collection is the melancholy and atmospheric vampire tale "Ken's Mystery", often cited as one of Julian Hawthorne's best stories and a much anthologized and acclaimed story among the works of the undead. (Summary by Ben Tucker)

27Blumen des Bösen

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Der Student Giovanni Guasconti hat von seiner Unterkunft aus Einblick in den wundersamen privaten Garten des berühmten Gelehrten Rappacini. Giovanni verliebt sich in die schöne Tochter Rappacinis, doch der Vater seiner Angebeteten steht in dem Ruf, ein äußerst skrupelloser Wissenschaftler zu sein. Sein Hauptinteresse gilt giftigen Pflanzen. Die Erzählung ist im Original unter dem Titel Rappacini’s Daughter erschienen. Diese Aufnahme wurde ursprünglich bei Legamus.eu veröffentlicht und später zu Librivox übertragen, als das Copyright es erlaubte. - Summary by Hokuspokus

28letra escarlata

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Con un interesante prólogo, Hawthorne acerca al lector a conocer el ambiente, lugar y tiempo en que se basa la historia narrada en su más conocida y controvertida novela. En ésta, se cuenta la historia de una mujer condenada a soportar públicamente y de forma ignominiosa el castigo recibido por adulterio. En la ciudad de Salem, bajo el rígido puritanismo de la Nueva Inglaterra del Siglo XVII, el relato invita a comprender y reflexionar sobre los personajes, creencias, sentimientos y costumbres de aquella época. (Introducción por Lu)

This is one book in a series of ten. Classic mystery and detective stories, collected and edited by Julian Hawthorne. This one is entitled. North Europe. - Summary by Michele Eaton