Edward Randolph's Portrait

Edward Randolph's Portrait by Nathaniel Hawthorne

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This classic, old short story is simply wonderful. Maybe I enjoyed it so much because it is reminiscent in style of other writers I admire, such as Bierce or Lovecraft, or maybe it's just that's it's prototypical of the age in which it was written--an age of writing in which I would be more than happy to spend all my waking/reading moments.

The description of the painting, when it is at last--albeit briefly--revealed, is fantastic. Search tho' I may, I've yet to find where some scribbler or sketcher or painter has attempted this awful face. I may do so myself at some point, as the description is devilish. The real trick will be in portraying such an array of emotion as ever sat on one, evil face, and making the whole look a hundred years old.

Edward Randolph's Portrait - Online -



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