Hawthorne

A biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64), an influence on James' own writing, and perhaps the first uniquely American novelist.

Henry James (Author)

9781108034623, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 October 2011

198 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.2 cm, 0.26 kg

This critical essay and biography by Henry James (1843–1916) of his fellow American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64), today best remembered for The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, was published in the first 'English Men of Letters' series in 1879, and is notable for being the only volume in that series devoted to an American. It is now recognised as being one of the first critical studies of an American writer, and it remains an important work for students and admirers both of James and of Hawthorne. In his critical assessment, James, whose own writing was strongly influenced by Hawthorne, seeks to identify him not only as a great novelist, but particularly as an American novelist, rooted in the landscape, and speaking in the language, of the New World.

1. Early years
2. Early manhood
3. Early writings
4. Brook Farm and Concord
5. The three American novels
6. England and Italy
7. Last years.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]