The works of Hawthorne consist of novels, short stories, tales for children, sketches of life and travel and some miscellaneous pieces of a biographical or descriptive character. Be sides these there were published after his death extracts from his notebooks. Of his novels 'The Scarlet Letter' is a story of old New England: it has a powerful moral idea at bot tom, but it is equally strong in its presentation of life and character in the early days of Massachusetts.
of the Seven Gables' presents New England life of a later date: there is more of careful analysis and presenta tion of character and more description of life and manners, but less moral intensity. 'The Blithedale Romance' is less strong: Hawthorne seems hardly to grasp his subject. It makes the third in what may be called a series of romances presenting the molding currents of New England life: the first showing the fac tors of religion and sin, the second the forces of hereditary good and evil, and the third giv ing a picture of intellectual and emotional fer ment in a society which had come from very different beginnings. 'Septimius Felton,' fin ished in the main but not published by Haw thorne, is a fantastic story dealing with the idea of immortality. It was put aside by Haw thorne when he began to write 'The Dolliver Romance,' of which he completed only the first chapters. (Dr. Gritnshaw's Secret' (published in 1882) is also not entirely finished. These three books represent a purpose that Haw thorne never carried out. He had presented New England life, with which the life of him self and his ancestry was so indissolubly con nected, in three characteristic phases. He had traced New England history to its source. He now looked back across the ocean to the Eng land he had learned to know, and thought of a tale that should bridge the gulf between the Old World and the New. But the stories are all incomplete and should be read only by the student. The same thing may be said of 'Fan shawe,) which was published anonymously early in Hawthorne's life and later withdrawn from circulation. (The Marble Faun' presents to us a conception of the Old World at its oldest point. It is Hawthorne's most elaborate work, and if every one were familiar with the scenes so discursively described, would probably be more generally considered his best. Like the other novels its motive is based on the problem of evil, but we have not precisely atonement nor retribution, as in his first two novels. The story is one of development, a transformation of the soul through the overcoming of evil. The four novels constitute the foundation of I-lawthorne's literary fame and character, but the collections of short stories do much to develop and complete the structure. They are of various kinds, as follows: (I) Sketches of current life or of history, as 'Rills from the Town Pump,' 'The Village Uncle,' 'Main Street,' 'Old News.' These are chiefly de scriptive and have little story; there are about 20 of them. (2) Stories of old New England, as
One element in Hawthorne's intellectual make-up was his interest in the observation of life and his power of description of scenes, manners and character. This is to be seen
especially, as has been said, in his notebooks and in (Our Old Home,' and in slightly modi fied form in the sketches noted above. These studies make up a considerable part of (Twice Told Tales' and 'Mosses from an Old Manse,' and represent a side of Hawthorne's genius not always borne in mind. Had this interest been predominant in him we might have had in Hawthorne as great a novelist of our every day life as James or Howells. In the 'House of Seven Gables' the power comes into full play: 100 pages hardly complete the descrip tions of the simple occupations of a single un eventful day. In Hawthorne, however, this in terest in the life around him was mingled with a great interest in history, as we may see, not only in the stories of old New England noted above, but in the descriptive passages of (The Scarlet Letter.' Still we have not, even here, the special quality for which we know Haw thorne. Many great realists have written his torical novels, for the same curiosity that ab sorbs one in the affairs of everyday may read ily absorb one in the recreation of the past. In Hawthorne, however, was another element very different. His imagination often furnished him with conceptions having little connection with the actual circumstances of life. The fanciful developments of an idea noted above (5) have almost no relation to fact: they are "made up out of his own head." They are fantastic enough, but generally they are developments of some moral ideaand a still more ideal develop ment of such conceptions was not uncommon in Hawthorne.
Daughter' is an allegory in which the idea is given a wholly imaginary setting, not resembling anything that Hawthorne had ever known from observation. These two elements sometimes appear in Haw thorne's work separate and distinct just as they did in his life: sometimes he secluded him self in his room, going out only after night fall; sometimes he wandered through the coun try observing life and meeting with everybody. But neither of these elements alone produced anything great, probably because for anything great we need the whole man. The true Haw thorne was a combination of these two ele ments, with various others of personal charac ter, and artistic ability that cannot be specified here. The most obvious combination between these two elements, so far as literature is con cerned, between the fact of external life and the idea of inward imagination, is by a symbol. The symbolist sees in everyday facts a presen tation of ideas. Hawthorne wrote a number of tales that are practically allegories:
For life consult Lathrop, G. P., in the library edition of Hawthorne; James, Henry (in
Men of Letters,' London 1880) ; Conway, M. D. (in (Great Writers' Series, London 1890). Consult also Lathrop, Rose Hawthorne,
of Haw thorne' (Boston 1897); Curtis, G. W.,