The Snow Image and Other Stories

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Included in this volume of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic romances are "The Snow-Image," "The Great Stone Face," "Main Street," "Ethan Brand," "A Bell's Biography," "Sylph Etherege," "The Canterbury Pilgrims," "Old News," "The Man of Adamant," "The Devil in Manuscript," "John Inglefield's Thanksgiving," "Old Ticonderoga," "The Wives of the Dead," "Little Daffydowndilly," and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux."

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Horror, American

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1852

About the author

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history.

Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to painter and illustrator Sophia Peabody the next year. He worked at a Custom House and joined a Transcendentalist Utopian community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before returning to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children.

Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States President Franklin Pierce.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin]

By the time Hawthornes’s final collection of short fiction, The Snow Image, and Other, and Other Twice Told Tales (1852) was published, the author had already turned his full attention to novels. (The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables had been published in the two previous years, and Hawthorne had already begun work on The Blithedale Romance.) In fact, only three works included here—”Main-Street,” “The Snow-Image,” and “The Great Stone Face,” “Ethan Brand”—had been written since the publication of Hawthorne’s previous collection, Mosses from the Old Manse (1846), the other twelve being previously uncollected pieces, some written twenty years before. Apparently Hawthorne’s audience had moved on too: The Snow Image was the authors least profitable book.

Still, everything here is worthy a reader’s attention. “Old News” (1835), “Old Ticonderoga” (1836) “A Bell’s Biography” (1837), and “Main Street” (1849) are fact-filled meditations in which Hawthorne uses an old place or artifact existing in the present—a hoard of ancient newspapers, a ruined fort, a local church bell, a diorama of Salem) to summon up the atmosphere of the colonial and revolutionary past. A few others are essentially successful tales slightly marred by their brevity or incompleteness—“The Wives of the Dead” (1832), “The Devil in Manuscript”(1838), “Sylph Etherege” (1838), “John Inglefield’s Thanksgiving” (1840)—but each emanating from the center of Hawthorne’s dark vision. Add to these “Little Daffydowndilly” (1843), a child’s allegorical parable about the nature of work, and “The Canterbury Pilgrims” (1833), a typical Hawthorne piece in which a group of desperate, down-on-their luck people decide whether to take refuge in the celibate Shaker Community of Canterbury, New Hampshire, and you have the core of a diverse and diverting college.

In addition, Hawthorne offers us five masterpieces, three of which are newer works. “The Snow-Image,” a chilling children’s story, demonstrates—like “The Birthmark,” “Rappacini’s Daughter,” and “The Artist of the Beautiful” before it—how a sensible, well-meaning man can destroy an irreplaceable, precious thing, “The Great Stone Face” (1850), a melancholy allegory, present a few images of human greatness, and “Ethan Brand” embodies the classic Hawthorne theme of a passionate man grown cold through a clinical search for perfection. The other two tales, though, are much earlier, and are just as good as the previous three. The Man of Adamant” (1837), as its title indicates, shares a theme with “Ethan Brand,” and “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” (1832)—written when Hawthorne was in his late twenties—is a tale of youthful disillusionment is as fine as anything Hawthorne has written, right up there with “Young Goodman Brown.”

Short version: not as good as “Twice-Told” or “Manse,” but well worth a look.

[Nidhi Srivastava]

That the stories are brilliant, I have no doubt. However, I've read just one: Ethan Brand. I came across it while reading an essay on Ethan Frome which said that EB foreshadows EF. So I, rather sadly and unknowingly, had already read some spoilers. I plodded through the story nevertheless, charmed neither by its wordiness, long sentences, bizarrely dark atmosphere nor the obscure plot. I was watching out for signs of resemblance to Ethan Frome; found very few, and at the end I realised I knew the climax all along; and the whole chilling effect was lost on me. God I hate people who give out spoilers without a warning.

[Andreashide]

Compré este libro hace un par de años y tenía la ilusión de encontrarme en el una dimensión distinta del autor de la Letra escarlata. La lectura de estos cuentos, todos ambientados en Nueva Inglaterra en el periodo de la Revolución (la independencia de los Estados Unidos), más que revelarme otra faceta de Hawthorne me permitió profundizar en ese estilo barroco, capaz de retratar la subjetividad humana en toda su complejidad, violento, puritano y sarcástico que se ha constituido en uno de los grandes referentes de la literatura norteamericana. Si bien algunos de los cuentos dejan un regusto a incompletitud que puede decepcionar al lector, cada uno en su especificidad desarrolla un universo singular en el que se proyectan distintas tonalidades históricas, personales y espirituales. A medida que avancé me sorprendí sintiendo que cada cuento tenía algo que lo hacía provisionalmente mi favorito. Hay mucha magia, envidia, perplejidad, amor y dureza en todos sus personajes, divididos entre la severidad religiosa, los avatares de un mundo en construcción y la voracidad de sus propias pulsiones. Me tomó tiempo terminarlo pero sin duda es un libro interesante, con muchas capas, muy de época y por el cual sigue vigente está extraña devoción que siento por Hawthorne.

[Cub Jones]

Like Mosses From an Old Manse, it mixes slight and trivial (though not unenjoyable) stories, with a fair amount of decent stories, and a handful of tremendous ones. His best stuff (In this collection: "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," "Ethan Brand," "Sylph Etherege," "The Wives of the Dead") crackles with obscuring shadows and veils, sly fireside devilishness, sharp irony and sometimes a disquieting ambiguity. I probably overuse the term "disquiet" or "disquieting" when praising a work, but I think the best works often have a strangeness and especially something troubling about them. They are an incantation to reveal.

[Theresa Lange]

Cute but a little sad

[Ink Ivory Club]

Magnificent structural prose wrapped in deep melancholy. The brief narrative framework displays a masterclass in economy of phrasing and thematic delivery.

[Sonia]

Quizá os sorprenda mi lentitud para leer doscientas cuarenta y seis páginas, pero este libro ha sido mucho más que una recopilación de cuentos: ha sido un viaje por la historia, la moral y las sombras de Estados Unidos, desde sus raíces coloniales hasta sus tensiones más íntimas.

Entre sus crónicas históricas —apreciables en cuentos como La calle mayor, Biografía de una campana, Noticias de ayer o La antigua Ticonderoga— encontramos también historias cotidianas expuestas como pequeñas obras de arte, donde crear una muñeca de nieve es mucho más que amontonar bolas blancas.

Hay belleza, hay dolor, hay pérdida, hay culpa, hay fanatismo y hay crueldad. Pero es una crueldad tan hermosa que se queda dentro y duele un poquito menos, porque Nathaniel no apuñala con cualquier arma: apuñala con daga de filigrana y empuñadura de terciopelo.

[grundoon]

3.5 A bit of an atypical Hawthorne batch (though always that element of supernatural, or at least a step removed from the ordinary), in that the quality varies. A couple of strong ones, the rest less memorable. The real question: what's up with this odd edition? It's only about half of 'The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales'... and I don't see the rest available in ebook form except as individuals. It's a tough decision to round Hawthorne down, but this volume just isn't up to snuff - it'd deserve better, intact.

[Joe]

This is a decent collection of short stories by Hawthorne. I did not think it was as good as “Twice Told Tales.” Many of the stories are forgettable but some are wonderful. I particularly liked “the Snow-Image” (a sweet story), “The Great Stone Face” and “A Bell’s Biography.” I would recommend this short book of stories.

[Julie]

feb 2003, "The Birthmark" paired with Hawthornes "The Wives of the Dead"

[Nick]

Absolutely great when he delves into archaic weird-fiction territory or proto-speculative fiction territory. When he doesn't its needlessly descriptive and bland.

[Roxane]

Lovely short stories (and beautifully written): The Snow Image-A Childish Miracle, The Great Stone Face Ethan Brand, The Canterbury Pilgrims, The Devil in Manuscript, and My Kinsman-Major Molineux