Nathaniel Hawthorne was an early master of the short story form. Cautionary, shadowy, eccentric and surreal, Hawthorne’s fiction transmits an avant-garde Romanticism consistent with the sentimentality of a Salem-born Yankee from the early 19th century. It is a style preoccupied with moral purity, psychological complexity, regional history, Puritanism, and the inherent fallibility of humankind. In the words of one contemporary publisher, “Of the American writers destined to live, [Hawthorne] is the most original, the one least indebted to foreign models or literary precedents of any kind.”

This course will focus on the most powerful and enduring of Hawthorne’s short stories – pieces like Rappaccini’s Daughter, Young Goodman Brown, The Birthmark, and others. Each week, we will read two selected tales, meeting as a group to discuss and reflect on them. The use of technology will be respectfully discouraged, and a close, comparative, and thoughtful reading of the text will be our guiding principle. So, if the prospect of a lively eight-week foray into one of New England’s most hallowed writers sounds appealing to you, then enroll in this course, and, in the words of its namesake, be “ever afterwards touched, and so transfigured.”

Format: We will read from Newton Arvin’s edited anthology of Hawthorne’s short stories; readings will be assigned by the coordinator at the behest of public opinion. Participants are encouraged to discuss and/or present on specific interests of theirs that may be germane to the reading.

Resources/Expenses: Hawthorne’s Short Stories (Vintage Classics) (ISBN: 9780307741219) is available in paperback from Amazon for $4.00 and up used.