4.0 out of 5 stars
From Puritanism to science fiction, Nathaniel Hawthorne had great range and variety as a writer., October 9, 2011
This review is from: Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches (Library of America) (Paperback)
Hawthorne has been one of my favorite writers for quite some time (admittedly, I think Poe will always be my number one love). This book is great for anyone wanting to delve deeper into the depth and range of a writer like Hawthorne. Most of us know Hawthorne as the guy who wrote that Scarlet Letter book from high school. Admittedly, I was not an adoring fan after reading that book in high school, but throughout college I was exposed to more of Hawthorne's short stories, and that's when my true appreciation for him developed. Not only are his short stories more manageable to "get through" when some of the wording and style can be a little heavy and old-fashioned, but they also reveal the variety of stories Hawthorne composed.
Not many would think of Hawthorne as a science fiction writer, but several stories "The Birth-mark," "Rappacini's Daughter," "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," etc. explore man's desire to understand the scientific realm and the consequences that result from such study.
I still have a sweet spot witnessing Hawthorne grapple with his own feelings for his Puritan ancestors. Stories such as "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Grey Champion," "The May-Pole of Merry-mount," etc. reveal his conflicting emotions towards his ancestors ranging from respect for their determination and strength to horror at their seeming hypocrisy and harshness.
Other works contain allegorical messages for the reader or playful musings of inanimate objects observing the world around them. This is not the kind of book you will pick up and read straight through, but it's worth having on hand to thumb through and peruse when looking for something different to read.
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1 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Earth's Holocaust, March 12, 2002
This review is from: Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches (Library of America) (Paperback)
The story concerns a massive bonfire in which the people of the world, convinced that their modern society has reached a state of near perfection,
determine to burn up all the outdated old knowledge from Man's dark past :
Once upon a time - but whether in the time past or time to come, is a matter of little or no moment- this wide world had become
so overburthened with an accumulation of worn-out trumpery, that the inhabitants determined to rid themselves of it by a general
bonfire. The site fixed upon, at the representation of the insurance companies, and as being as central a spot as any other on the
globe, was one of the broadest prairies of the West, where no human habitation would be endangered by the flames, and where
a vast assemblage of spectators might commodiously admire the show. Having a taste for sights of this kind, and imagining,
likewise, that the illumination of the bonfire might reveal some profundity or moral truth, heretofore hidden in mist or darkness,
I made it convenient to journey thither and be present.
As our narrator watches, into the flames go all of literature and art, the titles and insignias of rank, the decorations and medals bestowed upon
soldiers, the weapons, the fashionable clothing, the liquor and tobacco, the clerical vestments and the church buildings entire, all the accretions of
Western civilization, until even the Bible is added :
[A]s the final sacrifice of human error, what else remained to be thrown upon the embers of that awful pile, except the Book,
which, though a celestial revelation to past ages, was but a voice from a lower sphere, as regarded the present race of man?
It was done! Upon the blazing heap of falsehood and worn-out truth- things that the earth had never needed, or had ceased to need,
or had grown childishly weary of- fell the ponderous church Bible, the great old volume, that had lain so long on the cushion
of the pulpit, and whence the pastor's solemn voice had given holy utterance on so many a Sabbath day.
And so, purified in the flame, and rid of all of the hoary old thoughts that had been holding mankind back for so long, the reformers prepare to face
their perfect future. The former executioners, who have cast into the fire the implements used by the various nations for administering capital
punishment, commiserate about how they will no longer have any work, now that Man is perfect, but a stranger interrupts their reverie :
'The best counsel for all of us is,' remarked the hangman, 'that- as soon as we have finished the last drop of liquor- I help you,
my three friends, to a comfortable end upon the nearest tree, and then hang myself on the same bough. This is no world for us
any longer.'
'Poh, poh, my good fellows!' said a dark-complexioned personage, who now joined the group- his complexion was indeed
fearfully dark, and his eyes glowed with a redder light than that of the bonfire- 'Be not so cast down, my dear friends;
you shall see good days yet. There is one thing that these wiseacres have forgotten to throw into the fire, and without which
all the rest of the conflagration is just nothing at all; yes- though they had burnt the earth itself to a cinder.'
'And what may that be?' eagerly demanded the last murderer.
'What but the human heart itself!' said the dark-visaged stranger, with a portentous grin. 'And unless they hit upon some method
of purifying that foul cavern, forth from it will reissue all the shapes of wrong and misery-the same old shapes, or worse ones-
which they have taken such a vast deal of trouble to consume to ashes. I have stood by, this live-long night, and laughed in my
sleeve at the whole business. Oh, take my word for it, it will be the old world yet!'
This brief conversation supplied me with a theme for lengthened thought. How sad a truth- if true it were- that Man's age-long
endeavor for perfection had served only to render him the mockery of the Evil Principle, from the fatal circumstance of an error
at the very root of the matter! The heart-the heart- there was the little yet boundless sphere, wherein existed the original wrong,
of which the crime and misery of this outward world were merely types. Purify that inward sphere; and the many shapes of evil
that haunt the outward, and which now seem almost our only realities, will turn to shadowy phantoms, and vanish of their own
accord. But if we go no deeper than the Intellect, and strive, with merely that feeble instrument, to discern and rectify what is
wrong, our whole accomplishment will be a dream; so unsubstantial, that it matters little whether the bonfire, which I have so
faithfully described, were what we choose to call a real event, and a flame that would scorch the finger- or only a phosphoric
radiance, and a parable of my own brain!
For good reason does he call this tale a '"parable", for in just a few pages Hawthorne presents several of the central themes that unify his work,
ideas which form the very core of the conservative critique : that Man's sinfulness is an immutable part of his character; that rationalists, reformers,
and progressives delude themselves with their utopian notions of the perfectibility of Man; that in their delusion they do incalculable damage to the
culture, while leaving human nature untouched; and that, no matter the "progress" they make, evil lurks, waiting to rear its ugly head and shatter
their dreams.
GRADE : A+
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