Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

A selective list of online literary criticism and analysis for the nineteenth-century American novelist, poet, and writer of tales Nathaniel Hawthorne, with links to reliable biographical and introductory material and signed, peer-reviewed, and scholarly literary criticism

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Introduction & Biography

"Nathaniel Hawthorne." Introduction and biography, by Prof. Rita K. Gollin, from the Heath Anthology of American Literature. Also, teaching strategies, themes, historical perspectives, etc.

"Hawthorne." Interactive exhibition of papers, rare books, artwork, and other objects relating to Nathaniel Hawthorne, from the Peabody Exter Museum, a major archive of primary materials for Hawthorne.

James, Henry. "The Early Years" and "Early Manhood." Chapters 1 and 2 of novelist Henry James's 1879 study of Hawthorne. Courtesy eldritchpress.org.

"Hawthorne in Salem." Biographical information, historical context for his writing, discussions of his works. Also "Scholars' Forum." A collection of lectures and articles by authorities on Hawthorne, including Rita K. Gollin's, "Figurations of Salem in 'Young Goodman Brown' and 'The Custom-House.'" Hawthorne in Salem, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant site.

Daly, Robert. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." Literary Encyclopedia. Eds. Robert Clark, Emory Elliott, Janet Todd. An introduction to Hawthorne, from a database that provides signed literary criticism by experts in their field, and is available to individuals for a reasonably-priced subscription [subscription service].

"The Scarlet Letter and Nathaniel Hawthorne's America," by Brenda Wineapple. A history web site that provides cultural and historical context for The Scarlet Letter. From The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History [subscription service].

"Young Goodman Brown" (1835) Literary Criticism

"The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692 and 'Young Goodman Brown.'" Includes links to historical documents of the witchcraft trials. Hawthorne in Salem web site.

Carpenter, Richard C. "Hawthorne's Polar Explorations: 'Young Goodman Brown' and 'My Kinsman, Major Molineux.'" Nineteenth-Century Fiction 24, 1 (June 1969) pp 45-56 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Cook, Reginald. "The Forest of Goodman Brown's Night: A Reading of Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown.'" The New England Quarterly 43, 3 (Sept. 1970) pp 473-81 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Fogle, Richard H. "Ambiguity and Clarity in Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown.'" The New England Quarterly 18, 4 (Dec. 1945) pp 448-65 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Hostetler, Norman H. "Narrative Structure and Theme in 'Young Goodman Brown.'" The Journal of Narrative Technique 12, 3 (Fall 1982) pp 221-8 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Hurley, Paul J. "Young Goodman Brown's 'Heart of Darkness.'" American Literature 37, 4 (Jan. 1966) pp 410-19 [jstor preview or purchase.

Levy, Leo B. "The Problem of Faith in 'Young Goodman Brown.'" The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 74, 3 (July 1975) pp 375-87 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

McKeithan D.M. "Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown': An Interpretation." Modern Language Notes 67, 2 (Feb. 1952) pp 93-6 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Miller, Paul W. "Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown': Cynicism or Meliorism?" Nineteenth-Century Fiction 14, 3 (Dec. 1959) pp 255-64 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Stoehr, Taylor. "'Young Goodman Brown' and Hawthorne's Theory of Mimesis." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 23, 4 (March 1969) pp 393-412 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

"The Minister's Black Veil" (1835/6) Literary Criticism

Morsberger, Robert E. "'The Minister's Black Veil': 'Shrouded in a Blackness, Ten Times Black.'" The New England Quarterly 46, 3 (Sept. 1973) pp 454-63 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Stibitz, E. Earle. "Ironic Unity in Hawthorne's 'The Minister's Black Veil.'" American Literature 34, 2 (May 1962) pp 182-90 [jstor preview or purchase].

Voigt, Gilbert P. "The Meaning of 'The Minister's Black Veil.'" College English 13, 6 (March 1952) pp 337-38 [free at jstor, click "Read Online"].

The Scarlet Letter (1850) Literary Criticism

Abel, Darrel. "Hawthorne's Hester." College English 13, 6 (March 1952) pp 303-9 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Baskett, Sam S. "The (Complete) Scarlet Letter." College English 22, 5 (Feb. 1961) pp 321-8 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Baughman Ernest W. "Public Confession and The Scarlet Letter." The New England Quarterly 40, 4 (Dec. 1967) pp 532-50 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Bell, Millicent. "The Obliquity of Signs: The Scarlet Letter." The Massachusetts Review 23, 1 (Spring 1982) pp 9-26 [free at jstor].

Bercovitch, Sacvan. "The Scarlet Letter: A Twice-Told Tale." Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 22, 2 (Fall 1996). Courtesy eldritchpress.org.

Bercovitch, Sacvan. "The A-Politics of Ambiguity in The Scarlet Letter." New Literary History 19, 3 (Spring 1988) pp 629-54 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Boewe, Charles; and Murray G. Murphey. "Hester Prynne in History." American Literature 32, 2 (May 1960) pp 202-4 [jstor preview or purchase].

Carpenter, Frederic I. "Scarlet A Minus." College English 5, 4 (Jan. 1944) pp 173-80 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Colacurcio, Michael J. "Footsteps of Ann Hutchinson: The Context of The Scarlet Letter." ELH 39, 3 (Sept. 1972) pp 459-94 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Cottom, Daniel. "Hawthorne versus Hester: The Ghostly Dialectic of Romance in The Scarlet Letter." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 24, 1 (Spring 1982) pp 47-67 [jstor first page only].

Korobkin, Laura Hanft. "The Scarlet Letter of the Law: Hawthorne and Criminal Justice." Korobkin discusses inaccuracies in Hawthorne's portrayal of Puritan law in The Scarlet Letter : "What has not been adequately explored is this most legal of novels is Hawthorne's ahistorical imaging of the machinery of Puritan criminal law." Novel: A Forum on Fiction 30, 2 (Winter 1997) pp 192-217 [preview or purchase at jstor].

Leverenz, David. "Mrs. Hawthorne's Headache: Reading The Scarlet Letter." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 37, 4 (March 1983) pp 552-75 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Levy, Leo B. "The Landscape Modes of The Scarlet Letter." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 23, 4 (March 1969) pp 377-92 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Loring, George Bailey. "The Scarlet Letter and Transcendentalism." Massachusetts Quarterly Review 1850 [historical review, free].

Matthiessen, F.O. "Allegory and Symbolism," Book 2, Chapter 7 in American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman (Oxford 1941) [complete book, Questia subscription service].

Newberry, Frederick. "A Red-hot 'A' and a Lusting Divine: Sources For The Scarlet Letter." The New England Quarterly 1987 pp 256-64 [free].

Orians, G. Harrison. "Hawthorne and Puritan Punishments" [in "Endicott and the Red Cross" and The Scarlet Letter]. College English 13, 8 (May 1952) pp 423-32 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Ryskamp, Charles. "The New England Sources of The Scarlet Letter." On Hawthorne's use of Caleb H. Snow's History of Boston. In American Literature 3 (Nov. 1959) pp 257-72 [jstor preview or purchase].

Sandeen, Ernest. "The Scarlet Letter as a Love Story." PMLA 77, 4 (Sept. 1962) pp 425-35 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Snow, Caleb H. A History of Boston: The Metropolis of Massachusetts, From Its Origin to the Present Period (2nd ed., 1828). Important source used by Hawthorne for The Scarlet Letter [entire book free at Google].

Sarracino, Carmine. "The Scarlet Letter and a New Ethic." College Literature 10, 1 (Winter 1983) pp 50-9 [preview or purchase at jstor].

van Deusen, Marshall. "Narrative Tone in 'The Custom House' and The Scarlet Letter." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 21, 1 (June 1966) pp 61-71 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Wellborn, Grace Pleasant. "The Mystic Seven in The Scarlet Letter." The South Central Bulletin 21, 4 (Winter 1961) pp 29-31 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

The House of the Seven Gables (1851) Literary Criticism

Arac, Jonathan. "The House and the Railroad: Dombey and Son and The House of the Seven Gables" [and Charles Dickens]. The New England Quarterly 51, 1 (March 1978) pp 3-22 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Battaglia, Frank. "The House of the Seven Gables: New Light on Old Problems." PMLA 82, 7 (Dec. 1967) pp 579-90 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Battaglia, Frank. "The (Unmeretricious) The House of the Seven Gables." Studies in the Novel 2, 4 (Winter 1970) pp 468-73 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Baym, Nina. "The Heroine of The House of the Seven Gables; Or, Who Killed Jaffrey Pyncheon?." The New England Quarterly 77, 4 (Dec. 2004) pp 607-18 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Dillingham, William B. "Structure and Theme in The House of the Seven Gables." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 14, 1 (June 1959) pp 59-70 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Dryden, Edgar A. "Hawthorne's Castle in the Air: Form and Theme in The House of the Seven Gables." ELH 38, 2 (June 1971) pp 249-317 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Gallagher, Susan Van Zanten. "A Domestic Reading of The House of the Seven Gables." Studies in the Novel 21, 1 (Spring 1989) pp 1-13 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Gilmore, Michael T. "The Artist and the Marketplace in The House of the Seven Gables." ELH 48, 1 (Spring 1981) pp 172-89 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Griffith, Clark. "Substance and Shadow: Language and Meaning in "The House of the Seven Gables." Modern Philology 51, 3 (Feb. 1954) pp 187-95 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Harris, Kenneth Marc. "'Judge Pyncheon's Brotherhood': Puritan Theories of Hypocrisy and The House of the Seven Gables." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 39, 2 (Sept. 1984) pp 144-62 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Horne, Lewis B. "Of Place and Time: A Note on The House of the Seven Gables." Studies in the Novel 2, 4 (Winter 1970) pp 459-67 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Levy, Leo B. "Picturesque Style in The House of the Seven Gables." The New England Quarterly 39, 2 (June 1966) pp 147-60 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Marks, Alfred H. "Who Killed Judge Pyncheon? The Role of the Imagination in The House of the Seven Gables." PMLA 71, 3 (June 1956) pp 355-69 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Swann, Charles. "The House of the Seven Gables: Hawthorne's Modern Novel of 1848." The Modern Language Review 86, 1 (Jan. 1991) pp 1-18 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Thomas, Brook. "The House of the Seven Gables: Reading the Romance of America." PMLA 97, 2 (March 1982) pp 195-211 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Williams, Susan S. "'The Aspiring Purpose of an Ambitious Demagogue': Portraiture and The House of the Seven Gables." Nineteenth-Century Literature 49, 2 (Sept. 1994) pp 221-44 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

The Blithedale Romance (1852) Literary Criticism

Colacurcio, Michael J. "Nobody's Protest Novel: Art and Politics in The Blithedale Romance." Colacurcio compares the methods and effects of The Blithedale Romance with another book published the same year, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. In Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 34, 1/2 (2008) [questia sub ser, substantial preview].

Male, Roy R., Jr. "Toward the Waste Land: The Theme of The Blithedale Romance." In College English 15, 5 (Feb. 1955) pp. 277-83 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

"The Blithedale Romance: A Study Guide." Discussion questions for The Blithedale Romance, from Prof. Chris Mott.

"Brook Farm." On the history of the utopian community Brook Farm, its founder, the Unitarian minister George Ripley, and other Unitarian members of the community. From the Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society. Also Brook Farm Historic Site, West Roxbury, on the history and current status of the property. From the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Marble Faun (1860) Literary Criticism

Baym, Nine. "The Marble Faun: Hawthorne's Elegy for Art." The New England Quarterly 44, 3 (Sept. 1971) pp 355-76 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Brodtkorb, Paul, Jr. "Art Allegory in The Marble Faun." PMLA 77, 3 (June 1962) pp 254-67 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Hall, Spencer. "Beatrice Cenci: Symbol and Vision in The Marble Faun." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 25, 1 (June 1970) pp 85-95 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Herbert, T. Walter, Jr. "The Erotics of Purity: The Marble Faun and the Victorian Construction of Sexuality." Representations 36 (Autumn 1991) pp 114-32[free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Kemp, Mark A.R. "The Marble Faun and American Postcolonial Ambivalence." MFS Modern Fiction Studies 43, 1 (Spring 1997) pp 209-36 [substantial extract, muse].

Michael, John. "History and Romance, Sympathy and Uncertainty: The Moral of the Stones in Hawthorne's The Marble Faun." PMLA 103, 2 (March 1998) pp 150-61 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Nattermann, Udo. "Dread and Desire: 'Europe' in Hawthorne's The Marble Faun." Essays in Literature 21, 1 (1994) pp 54-67 [questia sub ser, substantial extract].

Schiller, Emily "The Choice of Innocence: Hilda in The Marble Faun." Studies in the Novel 26, 4 (Winter 1994) pp 372-91 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Other Works By/On Hawthorne

Bell, Millicant. Hawthorne's View of the Artist (State U of New York 1962) [complete book at questia sub ser].

Dwight, Sheila. "Hawthorne and the Unpardonable Sin." Studies in the Novel 2, 4 (Winter 1970) pp 449-58 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Erlich, Gloria Chasson. "Deadly Innocence: Hawthorne's Dark Women" [Rappaccini's Daughter]. The New England Quarterly 41, 2 (June 1968) pp 163-79 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Harris, Mark. "A new reading of 'Ethan Brand': the failed quest." Harris examines a widely held interpretation of Ethan Brand's search for the Unpardonable Sin. Studies in Short Fiction 31, 1 (Winter 1994) [questia sub ser, substantial preview].

Male, Roy R., Jr. "The Dual Aspects of Evil in 'Rappaccini's Daughter.'" PMLA 69, 1 (March 1954) pp 99-109 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Mills, Barriss. "Hawthorne and Puritanism." The New England Quarterly 21, 1 (March 1948) pp 78-102 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Pfister, Joel. The Production of Personal Life: Class, Gender, and the Psychological in Hawthorne's Fiction (Stanford UP 1991) [questia sub ser, complete book].

Reynolds, Larry J., ed. A Historical Guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne (Oxford UP 2001) [questia sub ser, complete book]. Reviewed in South Atlantic Review.

Puritans & Salem Witch Trials

Puritanism in New England and The Salem Witch Trials. American Studies Prof. Donna Campbell outlines the beliefs and writing style of the early American Puritans, background and reasons for the Salem Witch Trials, and suggests books for further study.

"Salem Witch Trials." Documentary archive and transcription project, includes verbatim transcriptions of court records, personal letters, historical maps, and information about the notable people involved in the trials. Academic web site, Univ. of Virginia.

"Famous American Trials: Salem Witch Trials." ed. Douglas O. Linder. History of witchcraft persecutions, an account of the events in Salem, teaching materials. A web site by a professor of law.

Miller, Perry. A reviewer dicusses Perry Miller's influential studies of Puritan belief in America, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century and The New England Mind: From Colony to Province. H-Net Reviews.

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