Nathaniel Hawthorne : Tales and Sketches (Library of America) (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Tales and Sketches" offers what no reader has ever been able to find--an authoritative edition of Hawthorne's complete stories in a single comprehensive volume. Here is everything from his three collections, "Twice-told Tales," "Mosses from an Old Manse," "The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-told Tales," his two books of stories for children based on classical myths, "A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys" and "Tanglewood Tales," and sixteen uncollected stories. The unique arrangement by order of publication charts Hawthorne's evolution into one of the most powerful and experimental writers of American fiction. From familiar but always surprising works like "Young Goodman Brown," to masterly fables like "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," to lesser known gems like "The Wives of the Dead," these haunting stories of love and guilt, of duty and licence, of the fateful ties of family and nation, show why Hawthorne is a great artist, and an astonishingly contemporary one.

From the Publisher

The Library of America is an award-winning, nonprofit program dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as "the most important book-publishing project in the nation's history" (Newsweek), this acclaimed series is restoring America's literary heritage in "the finest-looking, longest-lasting edition ever made" (New Republic).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1493 pages
• Publisher: Library of America; 4th. edition (May 6, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940450038
• ISBN-13: 978-0940450035
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #322,373 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #23 in	Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( H ) > Hawthorne, Nathaniel
  #69 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Hawthorne, Nathaniel
  #73 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics > United States > Hawthorne, Nathaniel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All or Nothing at All, September 21, 2002

By	Atar Hadari (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best selection to buy of Hawthorne's short stories because it is NOT a selection, it is complete and, if you believe the editor, it's actually more accurate in its assessment of what is and is not a Hawthorne story than some complete collections because he did not include here some stories that his co-editors on the Hawthorne Centenary Edition did want to include. (Hawthorne spent much of his career as an underpaid and unsung magazine writer and some of his work went with no byline and without reprinting at his own choice, so what he wrote is no easy matter to decide.) The stories are, you probably know if you're looking up this book, stark and wonderful. But some of them are also twee and a little fanciful and not so wonderful. That too is instructive. One very useful thing about this volume is that it includes a listing of when each story first saw print in magazine form and when in book form. In that way the reader can chart Hawthorne's development as a magazine writer and a professional which in every possible sense of the word he determined to become and despite some difficult odds finally was. Some of the most beautiful and terrifying stories in the language and a beautiful object to hold in your hand. Expensive, but if you can get it - this is the one to buy.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My personal desert island book., November 11, 2003

By A Customer

If Library of America had never published another book, this one alone would have justified their existence and earned them the gratitude of readers everywhere. Nearly 1,500 pages of what is arguably the best prose ever published by an Ameican writer.

I am sappy enough to enjoy Hawthorne the most in old editions, the older the better. But the stories are the same, no matter whether you're reading them in a dusty 19th century edition of _Mosses from an Old Manse_ or in this state-of-the-art omnibus edition, which includes all of Hawthorne's tales and sketches arranged chronologically, with brief bibliographic and biographic essays and a few explanatory notes. Take it on vacation with you some summer and experience it for yourself.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Authoritative Hawthorne Collection, March 3, 1997

By A Customer

The only complaint I have about this book it its paper, which is "bible thin." The tales and sketches from all of Hawthorne's collections are included here, along with 16 previously uncollected stories. If you've read any of Hawthorne's more popularly anthologized tales, you will be amazed at the eloquence and quality of these lesser known jems.