Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) could not have written the books he wrote if he had not been born and bred a New Englander. His tales spring from the rocky soil of that region and the Puritan preoccupation with sin and guilt and evil. If you have to assign him to a literary movement you have to classify him as a Romantic, particularly a Dark Romantic. His writings are allegories, filled with symbolism, plumbing the deepest psychological motives of their protagonists. He was one of the earlies... (show more)

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) could not have written the books he wrote if he had not been born and bred a New Englander. His tales spring from the rocky soil of that region and the Puritan preoccupation with sin and guilt and evil. If you have to assign him to a literary movement you have to classify him as a Romantic, particularly a Dark Romantic. His writings are allegories, filled with symbolism, plumbing the deepest psychological motives of their protagonists. He was one of the earliest "purely American" writers. Evert Augustus Duyckinck (that's his last name-no kidding) said of him, "Of the American writers destined to live; he is the most original, the one least indebted to foreign models or literary precedents of any kind".

I read The Marble Faun so long ago that I will have to rely on Wikipedia for this review since I remember virtually nothing about it, save that it is a good, though very strange, novel.

Hawthorne wrote this book in 1860, when he was in declining health. It was the last work he finished. It is set in Italy, where he and his wife lived for a year and a half. One of the main characters is a beautiful painter named Miriam, who is compared to Eve, Lady Macbeth, and other luminaries. Another is Hilda, an innocent copyist who is compared, believe it or not, to the Virgin Mary. Kenyon, a sculpturer who represents rational humanism is another of the main characters. The fourth is Donatello an Italian count who resembles a faun and is probably only half human. The four main characters are linked by a mysterious crime. This novel has been said to be partly travel book, pastoral novel, gothic novel, and fable. It is one of the strangest works of fiction ever written by an American writer. It has been cited as an influence for HP Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadeth. If you want to read it you can download it free from several websites since the copyright on it expired many years ago. (show less)

I am not going to declare that William Faulkner (1897-1962) was the greatest American writer, but he was without a doubt the great American storyteller. The 25 stories in this book are the saga of Yoknapatawpha, County, Mississippi, which must be the hardest county in America to spell, to pronounce, and especially to type. They cover the period from 1820 to 1950, a period which saw the rise and fall and the rise again of the American South. During this period Mississippi went from being a wil... (show more)

I am not going to declare that William Faulkner (1897-1962) was the greatest American writer, but he was without a doubt the great American storyteller. The 25 stories in this book are the saga of Yoknapatawpha, County, Mississippi, which must be the hardest county in America to spell, to pronounce, and especially to type. They cover the period from 1820 to 1950, a period which saw the rise and fall and the rise again of the American South. During this period Mississippi went from being a wilderness controlled by the Choctaw people to the wealthiest state in the Union during ante-bellum times to being the poorest state in the union, an honor I believe it still holds.

I don't have the time or the inclination to write the comprehensive review this collection of short stories deserves, so I'll just briefly discuss a few of them. "The Bear" is my all-time favorite hunting story. It is the story of how a young boy went hunting for an old bear with a group of men and became a young man in the process of hunting down and killing the bear that had been terrorizing a small rural community. "A Rose for Emily" tells the story of a respected old lady who has just died. After her death the body of her fiancée who had deserted her a half century ago is discovered in her house. "Old Man" is based on the great Mississippi River flood of 1820, a real historical event. It is about a convict who becomes separated from the work team he has been assigned to, floats down the river, and rescues a young woman and her infant. In the end the Governor of Mississippi offers him a pardon, but prison is the only life he remembers, so he returns to it and spends the rest of his life there.

Everyone who loves a great story should at least read "Old Man" and "The Bear." Faulkner's reputation is secure. Libraries of books have been written about him and his body of work. There is not much I can add except to say that for me he stands with Whitman, Emerson, Hawthorne, Fitzgerald, James, Hemingway, Steinbeck, and a few others as one of America's greatest writers. Who among contemporary writers do you think will join this elite company? (show less)