Showing results by author "Nathaniel Hawthorne" in All Categories

Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth; and the defiant Hester Prynne, who, unwilling to name her partner in adultery, is condemned to wear a scarlet "A" on the breast of her gown for the remainder of her life.

Basil Rathbone reads Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story about the minister of a small town who suddenly and without explanation starts to wear a black veil.

A vicious tempest is raging on a New England mountainside. A young traveler sojourns through the sea of wind and snow, finding refuge in a cottage, cozily nestled in the notch of a hill. The traveler burns with a determination to make his name known to the world. But that will all have to wait until the storm subsides.

Fiercely romantic and hugely influential, The Scarlet Letter is the tale of Hester Prynne, imprisoned, publicly shamed, and forced to wear a scarlet for committing adultery and bearing an illegitimate child, Pearl. In their small Puritan village, Hester and her daughter struggle to survive. In this searing study of the tension between private and public existence, Hester Prynne’s inner strength and quiet dignity secure her place as one of the first great heroines of American fiction.

This collection of short stories contains several gothic tales to bear macabre and chilling witness to writers as diverse as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Gaskell, Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Edith Nesbit. These tales are designed to unsettle you, just a little, while you sit back and take in their words as they lead you on a walk to places you’d perhaps rather not visit on your own. Our stories are "The Wedding Knell" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Old Nurse's Story" by Elizabeth Gaskell, and more.

These treasured stories from the most influential authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries are selected for their literary importance as well as their dramatic, oral qualities. Listen to these 10 unabridged classics by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, O. Henry, and Willa Cather.

The Scarlet Letter is one of the great classics of American literature. Set in the harsh Puritan environment of the 17th century Boston, it describes the plight of Hester Prynne, an independent-minded woman who stands alone against society.

"Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst. The street is Pyncheon Street; the house is the old Pyncheon House; and an elm-tree, of wide circumference, rooted before the door, is familiar to every town-born child by the title of the Pyncheon Elm."

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s magnum opus exploring the themes of legalism, sin and guilt.

La apasionante historia de una mujer condenada a llevar sobre su ropa una A escarlata, por haber cometido adulterio, no solo era un agudo analisis de la sociedad seudo-moralista en que vivia el autor sino ademas una obra de argumento interesante, con un profundo retrato de personajes y cuya grandeza nadie ha discutido.

Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.

Midnight Shadows features two classics of horror and the supernatural. "Young Goodman Brown" is the chilling story of a young Puritan man who finds himself drawn into a world of witchcraft and unspeakable black magic. "The Ash Tree" is the tale of Sir Richard, who encounters an ancient tree that harbors a dark and grotesque secret.

An old mansion in Salem, moss-covered and gabled, broods over the destiny of a distinguished but troubled New England Family, the Pynchons. A haunting, centuries-old curse, a forceful probing of national and personal guilt, a romance between the young heroine and an attractive stranger all intertwine in this classic work by one of America's greatest novelists.

Nathaniel Hawthorne masterfully grabs the imagination of children with these timeless tales of adventure based on the incomparable Greek mythological heroes' escapades. The stories included are: "The Wayside", "The Minotaurs", "The Pygmies", "The Dragon's Teeth", "Circe's Palace", "The Pomegranate Seeds", and "The Golden Fleece".

"To inherit a great fortune. To inherit a great misfortune." These words, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's notebook, neatly encapsulate the theme of The House of the Seven Gables - that of a family whose fortunes are poisoned by its past misdeeds.

Nine spine-chilling stories from Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jerome K. Jerome, read by Laurence Olivier, Nelson Olmsted, and Basil Rathbone.

Hester Prynne commits adultery in a Puritan settlement and, as a result, is "branded" for the rest of her life by having to wear a scarlet letter "A" on her breast. Throughout the story, a complex relationship develops between Hester, her lover, her husband, and her daughter.

A treasure chest of the most popular classic crime stories from the 19th century. •The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe •A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins •Murder under the Microscope by William Russell •The Three Strangers by Thomas Hardy •The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe •The Mystery of Marie Roget by Edgar Allan Poe •Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The travelling tobacco pedlar, Dominicus Pike, learns from a traveller he meets on the road, of the terrible murder of Mr. Higginbotham of Kimballton the previous evening. Once the traveller has gone, it puzzles Dominicus that the news could have travelled so quickly from Kimballton which is sixty miles away. Nevertheless, Dominicus passes on the sensational news everywhere he goes and enjoys being the centre of attention.

Nell'estate del 1851 la moglie di Hawthorne, Sophia, parte con le due figlie per far visita ai genitori che vivono nei pressi di Boston. Così, per tre settimane, lo scrittore si ritrova da solo - e all'inizio un po' sgomento - con il figlio Julian, che ha cinque anni ed è un vero "chatterbox", infaticabile produttore di parole e di domande. Hawthorne è schivo, introverso, incline a elaborare storie di memorabile e fascinosa cupezza, come "La lettera scarlatta".