Twice-Told Tales

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1837

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twice Told Tales is a two-volume collection of thirty-nine Hawthorne’s pieces, consisting of short fiction, allegories and narrative essays. Originally issued in 1837 and 1841 (nine years before the publication of his "breakout" work The Scarlet Letter), these volumes take their name from the fact that all the tales contained herein are “twice-told” in the sense that each had been published before, almost all anonymously, in journals of the time (many in The Token and Atlantic Souvenir).

Although only half of these stories are first-rate in execution, and little more than a third worthy the name of “classic”—I would include “The Gray Champion,” “The Wedding Knell,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “The Maypole of Merrymount”, “Wakefield,” “The Hollow of the Three Hills,” “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” Legends of the Province House (all four connected tales), “The Haunted Mind,” “The Ambitious Guest,” Peter Goldswaithe”s Treasure,” and “Endicott and the Red Cross”—still, the cumulative effect is more than the sum of the parts.

The greatest gift the reader receives by reading all of these tales—including the sometimes too superficial vignettes and too obvious allegories—is an intimate acquaintance with the young Hawthorne: brooding, reflective, with a profound interest in both colonial and revolutionary history, given to solitary walks and meditations, and yet warm-hearted and forever open to the rich variety of human life that New England town life had to offer.

Highly recommended.

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Es la negrura en Hawthorne lo que tanto me atrae y me fascina. Los grandes genios son parte de los tiempos" Herman Melville

"Los rasgos distintivos de Hawthorne son la invención, la creación, la imaginación y la originalidad y Hawthorne es original en todos los sentidos. Resultaría difícil señalar el mejor de todos estos cuentos; repetimos que son bellos sin excepción." Edgar Allan Poe

"El hombre de letras más oscuro de América".
Esta es la descripción más exacta que uno pueda encontrar sobre Nathaniel Hawthorne. Precursor de la literatura norteamericana moderna que se iniciara a principios del siglo XIX junto con los dos grandes autores que aportan las frases iniciales, supo forjar una notable carrera literaria, sobre todo muy especial en lo que a lo narrativo se refiere. Tal vez sus detractores pueden objetarle su prosa extremadamente y refinada, que muchos consideraban anticuada y ornamentada de un exagerado simbolismo no puede reprochársele la vigencia de novelas suyas como “La Letra Escarlata” o “La Casa de los Siete Tejados”.
Nacido en Salem y descendiente de John Hathorne (sin la w) que otra formara parte del infausto tribunal que cazaba supuestas brujas bajo el oscuro reinado del Puritanismo en el siglo XVII, supo distanciarse de esa herencia para encaminarse en una prolífica carrera literaria, aunque tal vez supo mantener ese otro costado de la realidad de las cosas que encierra lo oculto, lo siniestro y lo ominoso sin dejar de resaltar la belleza de la vida y la virtud de los hombres.
Estos “Cuentos dos veces contados” son una prueba fehaciente de ello. Para mantenernos entretenidos en sus historias, Hawthorne se vale de recursos bien efectivos como la anticipación a partir de un pequeño dato, una fisura oculta, que nos mantendrán expectantes para conocer el desenlace de la historia que usualmente se transforma en una verdadera alegoría, una enseñanza de vida o una moraleja edificante.
El libro se compone de catorce cuentos, algunos de ellos de una maestría notable. El más importante a mi entender es Wakefield, un cuento que anticipó nada menos que a Franz Kafka, con un personaje que da la impresión de ser un pariente lejano de Bartleby, el inolvidable escribiente creado por Herman Melville.
La singular decisión de Wakefield para salir de su casa y habitar otra alquilada previamente a una cuadra de la suya propia, abandonando a su esposa durante veinte años es realmente sorprendente, extraño y singular. El cuento es de por sí una verdadera gema literaria que releo constantemente.
Otro cuento realmente bueno es “El joven Goodman Brown” que narra la historia de un muchacho que en una travesía por el bosque se encuentra con el Diablo.
Tal vez desde el Fausto de Goethe que no se dibuja una imagen del diablo tan convincente para el lector como lo logra Hawthorne en este cuento, que me recordó mucho a esas historias fantásticas del gran autor alemán E.T.A. Hoffmann y creo que Hawthorne se inspiró en este autor para pertrechar esta historia. Algo parecido sucede en Ethan Brand, el joven en busca del Pecado Imperdonable y de su cruce con el calero Bartram y su hijo Joe. El final del cuento es digno de los mejores cuentos fantásticos que uno pueda leer.
Especial atención me produjo leer “La muñeca de nieve: un milagro infantil”, un cuento a mitad de camino entre la fábula infantil y la enseñanza moral que muchas veces nos dan los niños y que encierra la moraleja sobre lo que el resultado de las decisiones pueden afectar la vida de las personas.
Otros cuentos que me gustaron mucho fueron “Los retratos proféticos”, que encierra una historia de amor y crimen, “La marca de nacimiento”, que cuenta la historia de una joven que nace con la marca de una pequeña mano escarlata en su mejilla y el afán de su marido científico de extirpársela y que se emparenta tanto con la búsqueda de la perfección de tantas mujeres jóvenes de hoy, quienes encontrar en las cirugías estéticas la forma de la verdadera felicidad.
El cuento “La catástrofe del señor Higginbotham” está enmarcado dentro de lo que sería un predecesor del cuento policial, a partir de la historia que Dominicus Pike escucha sobre el asesinato de un renombrado comerciante.
Por último, otro de los cuentos estrella del libro: “La hija de Rappaccini”, una historia sobre un científico botánico y su bella hija Beatrice a la que Hawthorne dota de aura de diosa mitológica (es para mí una auténtica precursora de esa villana y enemiga de Batman llamada Poison Ivy, también conocida como Hiedra Venenosa). Inmensamente bella, es mortal para cualquier humano que la toque o perciba hasta su ponzoñoso aliento.
Vive en comunión con el enorme jardín creado artificialmente por su padre y no conoce otro mundo, hasta que se encuentra con el joven estudiante Giovanni Guasconti. Con el correr de la historia conocerá a Beatrice y su mortal secreto, pero por alguna razón le será inmune y a partir de allí el relato tendrá un cambio radical cuyo final el autor se encargará de esclarecer con creces.
Los cuentos restantes no me agradaron tanto como estos que he detallado pero no por ello significa que sean de menor calidad; todos son realmente originales y únicos.
Nathaniel Hawthorne sigue deslumbrándome con el inigualable brillo de su oscuridad de la misma manera que lo hizo con Herman, Edgar y e infinidad de lectores hasta el día de hoy.

[GoldGato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hawthorne has always freaked me out a bit. I say that with respect, but he and Washington Irving remind me of chilly October nights, full moons, rustling leaves, and scarecrows. In other words, New England. In this collection of tales, Hawthorne lures the reader in with parables of good versus, well you know what. Very Puritan-ish.

It was old Esther Dudley, who had dwelt almost immemorial years in this mansion, until her presence seemed as inseparable from it as the recollections of its history.

These are tales, not stories. Perhaps one needs to have some Salem Witch Trial blood (which Hawthorne did) to produce such works. My poor battered copy sits defiantly on the New England shelf, knowing it harbors original strangeness.

Book Season = Autumn (Pilgrims wear black)

[Justin Pickett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t know what to expect going into this, but was pleasantly surprised. Although the writing is a little clunky (comma laden) in places, the stories are interesting, make you think, and do an excellent job of depicting the problems with stigmatization, with religious hatred and prejudice, and with superficial and/or shortsighted life goals (e.g., wealth). Here are the best stories, in my opinion, with short descriptions and illustrative quotes:

THE GENTLE BOY (Five Stars)

A young boy is a victim of the clash between Puritans and Quakers, and his adoption by members of the opposite religious sect, which should be a positive event, instead illuminates the tragic consequences of religious prejudice, including how it results in evil, hypocritical behavior.

“What! You do not fear to sit beneath the gallows on a new-made grave, and yet you tremble at a friend’s touch. Take heart, child, and tell me what is your name, and where is your home?” (p. 51)

“He was a sweet infant of the skies, that had strayed away from his home, and all the inhabitants of this miserable world closed up their impure hearts against him, drew back their earth-soiled garments from his touch, and said, ‘We are holier than thou.’” (p. 57)

Personally, I think this is the best story in the collection. It also includes some of the best writing. For example: “His mind was wanting in the stamina for self-support; it was a plant that would twine beautifully round something stronger than itself, but if repulsed, or torn away, it had no choice but to wither on the ground.” (p. 65)

THE MINISTER’S BLACK VEIL (Five Stars)

People are quick to stigmatize and ostracize someone, even people to whom they are close, for behaviors that are simple and harmless—only a “material emblem”—but different and not understood.

“He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.” (p. 12)

DR. HEIDEGGER’S EXPERIMENT (Five Stars)

What would happen if we found the fountain of youth and could start life over as young people again? Would we do any better, or just make the same mistakes? This story deals with these questions in a very illuminating and entertaining way, centered on a magical doctor hosting a get-together with some old men and women.

“But it was well known to be a book of magic; and once, when a chamber maid had lifted it, merely to brush away the dust, the skeleton had rattled in its closet, the picture of the young lady had stepped one foot upon the floor, and several ghastly faces had peeped forth from the mirror; while the brazen head of Hippocrates frowned, and said, ‘Forbear!’” (p. 140)

THE PROPHETIC PAINTER (Five Stars)

This is a horror story infused with magic. There is a painter who either sees the future or makes it, and the outcomes he paints are not always nice.

“They say that he paints not merely a man’s features, but his mind and heart.” (p. 106)

“The old women of Boston affirm … that after he has once got possession of a person’s face and figure, he may paint him in any act or situation whatever—and the picture will be prophetic.” (p. 110)

DAVID SWAN (Four Stars)

In this story, which focuses on what happens around a young man while he sleeps in a public place, we see how much of life is due to chance, to events that we are not even aware of, and how easily things could turn out differently, how helpless we would be to alter the outcome.

“Could we know all the vicissitudes of our fortunes, life would be too full of hope and fear, exultation or disappointment, to afford us a single hour of true serenity.” (p. 120)

“Does it not argue a superintending Providence that, while viewless and unexpected events thrust themselves continually athwart our path, there should still be regularity enough in mortal life to render foresight even partially available?” (p. 125)

PETER GOLDTHWAITE’S TREASURE (Four Stars)

A man prone to speculating tears down something of value in a desperate effort to find money, ignoring everything that truly matters in his life.

“Peter Goldthwait, on the contrary, after innumerable schemes which ought to have collected all the coin and paper currency of the country into his coffers, was as needy a gentleman as every wore a patch upon his elbow.” (p. 272)

EDWARD FANE’S ROSEBUD (Four Stars)

Two people in love are separated because of their different stations in life, which cannot survive “aristocratic prejudices,” but they may come together again in a much darker way.

“The lovers parted, and have seldom met again. Both may have visited the same mansions, but not at the same time, for one was bidden to the festal hall and the other to the sick-chamber; he was the guest of Pleasure and Prosperity, and she of Anguish.” (p. 317)

THE THREEFOLD DESTINY (Four Stars)

Here is another story focused on showing how the treasure we often seek in life is right in front of us the whole time, if only we would focus on what matters in life—namely, family and helping others—instead of on selfish ends.

“Now, a credulous man … might suppose that the treasure which I have sought round the world lies buried, after all, at the very door of my mother’s dwelling.” (p. 325)

[Erick Abanto López · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empecé este volumen con mucho escepticismo, antes había leído Wakefield y no me entusiasmó tanto como a Borges, pero decidí darle una segunda oportunidad, arriesgar tiempo y energías en la obra de un autor que nunca me llamó la atención pero del que sabía, por la crítica académica y por cultura general, que era central en la tradición norteamericana. Desde fuera, siempre lo vi como un autor cursilón, aburrido o fiel devoto a las parrafadas y metafísicas. Me equivoqué. Más de un mes después de esa primera incursión, sólo me queda gratitud y asombro.

La genialidad de Hawthorne tiene muchas facetas. Es un universo inabarcable y fértil. Profundamente generoso en alegorías, hipótesis e imágenes. Al inicio, como cualquier clásico, cuesta agarrar su ritmo, seguir esa parsimonia afilada y templada, exquisitamente premeditada que, como en una ilusión, dota a cada palabra de un aparente fin exacto, y eso puede chocar si el abordaje se ejecuta desde una lectura fragmentaria, como la actual, tan acostumbrada a las elipsis. Pero una vez superado ese desfase, el oro que muestra y a la vez oculta Hawthorne es invaluable, inolvidable, inagotable y hasta indescriptible.

Sin artificios estilísticos o juegos de forma como los de Faulkner y Joyce, y sin cuestionar nunca las convenciones literarias de su época, compone una variedad escandalosa de relatos magistrales sobre el paso del tiempo y sus consecuencias en la condición humana, sus paradojas, sus ironías y sus secretos.

Lo efímero y lo eterno se conjugan en los cuentos de Hawthorne de tal modo que todos los sentimientos, los recuerdos, los anhelos y las acciones de sus personajes aparecen enmarcados en un vaivén de nacimiento y muerte, de agonía y éxtasis, sujetos siempre a la erosión de los años y al cambio inevitable, al paulatino agotamiento de su mundo y al incesante y apasionado ascenso de otro, distinto y nuevo.

Todos los cuentos están poblados de personajes que ven o recuerdan el fin de una época. Y aunque a veces parece que el cuento es simplemente una ironía al progreso (como «La hija de Rappaccini», «La marca de nacimiento» o «El experimento del Dr. Heidegger») o a algún mito religioso (como «El ferrocarril celestial», «El velo negro del pastor» o «Ethan Brand») o una evocación histórica (como «El gran rostro de piedra», «El ruego de Alice», «El joven Goodman Brown», «El mástil de mayo de Merry Mount», «La vieja Esther Dudley» o «El manto de lady Eleanore») o una alegoría misteriosa (como «La hondonada de las Tres colinas», «Wakefield», «Los retratos proféticos», «El holocausto del mundo», «El artífice de la belleza», «Feathertop» o «El huésped ambicioso») o incluso la persecución de un secreto (como «La catástrofe del Sr. Higginbotham» o «El tesoro de Peter Goldthwaite»), siempre hay un matiz, en el tono o en la misma trama, que encuadra el relato en la dialéctica de lo que perdura y lo que cambia o se va.

Pero como todo gran clásico, sus cuentos son también una despedida. Un adiós recio y melancólico a los miedos de la vieja sociedad puritana, a sus angustias religiosas, a sus silencios y supersticiones, a esos tiempos de brujas y aquelarres que, por más que aún persistan como anécdotas en la cultura popular, en general fueron desplazados para siempre por el ferrocarril, las máquinas, la especulación financiera y los experimentos científicos.

No obstante, el desplazamiento no es luminoso ni liberador. En casi todos los cuentos de este volumen, los mitos se acaban, el miedo a lo desconocido se desvanece, la razón triunfa con sus explicaciones e inventos, pero algo sagrado, un lazo común entre la humanidad y la naturaleza, de pronto se esfuma.
Todo se torna material y acumulable, y los frenos morales, otrora imponentes y sádicos, pierden vigencia y se esconden entre el folclor del pueblo y la memoria caprichosa de los ancianos. Ya nada está prohibido, todos los secretos del mundo pueden ser descubiertos.

El secreto del movimiento de las cosas. El secreto del dinero. El secreto de la vida, de las enfermedades y de la muerte.

Pero esta promesa, como nuy bien lo muestra Hawthorne a lo largo de todos sus relatos, esconde una trampa. El pensamiento lógico-científico ha desplazado al pensamiento mágico-religioso, ha desencantado al mundo hasta convertirlo en un páramo lleno de vanidades, donde lo sagrado es leyenda y lo moral residuo, pero no ha resuelto el asunto central.

Han cambiado las gramáticas, pero el pilar sigue siendo el mismo.

De ahí que Hawhorne trate con sarcasmo a los inventos tecnológicos, a los compradores de bonos y en especial a los científicos. Con formidable maestría nos expone que, a pesar de todo y a pesar de tanto, la fuerza medular que empuja la ambición de estos hombres o la frenética construcción de esas máquinas sigue siendo la misma que empujaba a los viejos a quemar mujeres, a experimentar o a independizar un país: la fe.

La fe en Dios. La fe en la patria. La fe en el arte. La fe en el progreso. La fe en la ciencia. La fe en nosotros.

La fe en que, tarde o temprano, todo pasará.

Hawthorne compone veinticuatro cuentos (son veintiséis, pero dos son para el olvido) imbuidos de una nostalgia parca por los tiempos idos (tejida por el deseo de comprender los sentimientos de esas gentes del pasado y por mostrar la cualidad siniestra y ficticia de su fervor) y de un escepticismo sarcástico por el futuro (definido por la seriedad científica, la ausencia de amor, la utopía y la acumulación infinita de dinero), donde la única salida, la única fuente fértil e inagotable de movimiento y creación, de mito y magia, de presente perpetuo, es la trama del cuento y el ingenio, el juego, la deliciosa estrategia con que la narra.

Así, a lo largo de todos estos cuentos, Hawthorne pareciera decirnos que, frente a la nostalgia y la incredulidad, la única vía de escape es y siempre será la fiesta, el juego, la ilusión, la magia, la ficción.

La literatura. Ese duende inasible que produce artilugios tan perfectos como estos. Ese último refugio religioso de vida sin tiempo. Esa fiesta eterna a donde siempre podemos volver en busca de energía y música.

La literatura, la única ficción que, a diferencia del pasado y del futuro, brilla y no enceguece.

-
Por supuesto, hay más. La veta de Hawthorne es inagotable. Cada relato suyo da para una reseña larguísima. Y aún así siempre quedará la sensación de que él lo dijo mejor sin necesidad de nada más. Definitivamente da para varias relecturas, y estoy seguro que estos cuentos me acomparán toda la vida.

Me quedo con todos salvo dos que me parecieron pésimos: «Mi pariente, el mayor Molineux» y «El dulce niño».

Y de todos, por ahora me quedo con «El artífice de la belleza», «El ferrocarril celestial», «La catástrofe del Sr. Higginbotham», «El holocausto del mundo» y «Los retratos proféticos». Creo que con estos cinco cuentos uno tranquilamente puede dejar de leer libros para siempre y dedicarse a otras cosas. Así de radical, así de geniales.

-
Léanla con una botella mediana de Jack Daniel's Tenesse Honey 🥃 y escuchando, entre cuento y cuento, «In The Dark Hours» de Anon Berg 🎶

✌🏽

[Z. · Rating 3 out of 5]

UPDATED WITH REVIEW OF VOLUME 2

Review of volume 1, i.e. the 19 stories from the 1837 edition:

★★★★☆

After reading and loving The Scarlet Letter last month I decided I should get a taste of Hawthorne's short fiction. This was his first story collection and second book, the tales "twice-told" only in the sense that they had already been published individually in periodicals prior to being collected here.

Single-author story collections often fall into one of two traps: either the selections are too similar and the experience becomes same-y, or they're too disparate and it feels disjointed. If I had to choose one or the other I'd pick the latter, and that's very much where Hawthorne falls. Actually I'd say there are three main modes you can sort these stories into, give or take a handful of edge cases. There are the classically Hawthornian spooky, symbol-laden, psychological mini-gothics, often but not always with a colonial American setting, which are generally the best and certainly what I'm most interested in:

"The Wedding-Knell"
"The Minister's Black Veil"
"The Gentle Boy"
"Wakefield"
"The Prophetic Pictures"
"The Hollow of the Three Hills"

Then there are pieces I'd put more in the category of "yarns" or fables—lighter in tone, more overtly fantastical or at least implausible in subject matter, usually with a clear moral hammered home firmly at the end. These are typically entertaining enough (give or take the occasional wince-inducing 19th-century comment on race or gender), though pretty insubstantial:

"The Gray Champion"
"The Maypole of Merry Mount"
"Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe"
"The Great Carbuncle"
"David Swan"
"The Vision of the Fountain"
"Fancy's Show-Box"
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"

And finally there are what I call the "sketches," basically just imaginative musings on contemporary New England life structured around a loose creative conceit: the daily encounters of a tollbooth operator, scenes of town life through the eyes of a young girl, a monologue from a sentient water pump who moonlights as a temperance movement propagandist. These are entirely skippable, though at least mildly informative as historical documents if you're interested in day-to-day life in the pre-Civil War U.S. (I am):

"Sunday at Home"
"Little Annie's Ramble"
"A Rill from the Town-Pump"
"Sights from a Steeple"
"The Toll-Gatherer's Day"

As you can see from this breakdown, the American gothic Hawthorne of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables is not actually the predominant one here. Like his contemporary (and complimentary reviewer of this very collection) Poe, who wrote about as many satires and adventure tales as he did his more iconic horror stories, the early Hawthorne wore a number of authorial hats. It's lucky for American literature that he had the time and good sense to figure out what he was most skilled at and refine his focus.

Hawthorne's best works are the ones which feel both parable-like and inconclusive. By far the standouts for me in this volume are the rightfully-famous "Wakefield," about the existential emptiness of husbands who get off on pranking their wives, and the unnervingly ambiguous "The Minister's Black Veil." It's easy to see, in stories like these, why Melville was so in awe of Hawthorne, and what tricks he picked up from him and perfected.

---

Review of volume 2, i.e. the 17 additional stories from the 1841 edition:

★★★☆☆

It turns out I could have just ended my reading after volume 1 without missing any significant highlights. The 1841 edition of Twice-Told Tales adds an additional 17 stories to the table of contents, but none of them rise to the standards of the best of the first set. You don't even really get the satisfaction of watching Hawthorne develop as a writer, since, oddly, many of the pieces here were in fact composed earlier in his career than those of the first batch. An indication, maybe, that Hawthorne or his publisher knew these weren't the cream of the crop, but decided they'd at least do to pad out a reissue.

The yarns and sketches predominate here, with some of the latter being especially weak: a transparent attempt to meet a word count with some halfhearted musings about snow ("Would it might inspire me to sketch out the personification of a New England winter! And that idea […] shall be the theme of the next page…"), a retrospective on the year 1839 in the guise of an encounter between the anthropomorphized Old Year and the New (complete with product placements for Hawthorne's employer, the Salem Gazette), and so on. Thankfully even the poorest efforts tend to have at least one or two really striking passages, where the more artistic or philosophical Hawthorne breaks free from the constraints of his conceit and ensures that the reading isn't a total waste of time. (As a perennial insomniac, I will say I appreciated "The Haunted Mind," about the pleasures and pains of being awake at 2 am. "Footprints on the Seashore," documenting a solitary day at the beach, is another standout—it's Transcendentalism without the self-importance of Thoreau or Emerson.)

There are only a small handful of truly gothic tales here, the most notable being the four-part opening story "Legends of the Province-House." Each part is set in the eponymous Boston mansion (once the official residence of Massachusetts' colonial governors, now long since torn down), with a framing device about how the author comes to learn what he's relating to us. There are some good premises here (a spooky portrait presaging Wilde, an eerily symbolic masquerade ball and a second ball which serves as a smallpox super-spreader event, both anticipating and possibly inspiring Poe), though they're hindered a bit by the number of references to the administrations of specific colonial governors and by the unsubtle patriotic messaging throughout. Other gothic-inflected pieces are the atmospheric but confusing "The White Old Maid," a vignette called "Edward Fain's Rosebud" which is mostly a showcase of Hawthorne's recurring horror of aging women, and the overlong, semi-comic story "Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure," which reads almost like a spoof of "The Fall of the House of Usher" despite apparently just managing to pre-date it.

I should also mention that, a decade or so before he published The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne evidently already had the image of Hester Prynne in his mind. She makes a brief cameo in the otherwise unremarkable "Endicott and the Red Cross":

There was likewise a young woman, with no mean share of beauty, whose doom it was to wear the letter A on the breast of her gown, in the eyes of all the world and her own children. And even her own children knew what that initial signified. Sporting with her infamy, the lost and desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token in scarlet cloth, with golden thread, and the nicest art of needle-work; so that the capital A might have been thought to mean Admirable, or any thing rather than Adulteress.

Even after 36 Hawthorne stories, very few of them really great, at least half of them totally forgettable, and none of them as good as his most famous novel, I still do find myself strangely engaged by and drawn to his short fiction, which for better or worse is so completely different from anything I see happening in that form today. I've especially found these stories excellent bedtime reading: drowse-inducing, maybe, but also good fodder for dreams.

[Mike Thorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant work of literary invention, not only the groundwork for the New England Gothic but for modern American short fiction proper. These stories wind in and out of the past and present, foregrounding how the vestiges of ancestral cruelties haunt individuals, communities, and that colonialist myth of "nations." Intercut among the eerie and fantastical fables are "sketches", non-narrative paeans to places both natural and manmade, propelled solely by Hawthorne's exquisite language. Required reading for anyone interested in the New England Gothic lineage.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could never write a better review for this truly beautiful book than Mr. Longfellow did in 1837, so I quote him...

To this little work we would say, "Live ever, sweet, sweet book." It comes from the hand of a man of genius. Every thing about it has the freshness of morning and of May. These flowers and green leaves of poetry have not the dust of the highway upon them. They have been gathered fresh from the secret places of a peaceful and gentle heart. There flow deep waters, silent, calm, and cool; and the green trees look into them, and "God's blue heaven." The book, though in prose, is written nevertheless by a poet. He looks upon all things in the spirit of love, and with lively sympathies; for to him external form is but the representation of internal being, all things having a life, an end and aim....
One of the most prominent characteristics of these tales is, that they are national in their character. The author has wisely chosen his tales among the traditions of New England; the dusty legends of "the good Old Colony times, when we lived under a king." This is the right material for story. It seems as natural to make tales out of old tumble-down traditions, as canes and snuff-boxes out of old steeples, or trees planted by great men. The puritanical times begin to look romantic in the distance. Truly, many quaint and quiet customs, many comic scenes and strange adventures, many wild and wondrous things, fit for humorous tale and soft, pathetic story, lie all about us here in New England.
Another characteristic of this writer is the exceeding beauty of his style. It is as clear as running waters are. Indeed he uses words as mere stepping-stones, upon which, with a free and youthful bound, his spirit crosses and recrosses the bright and rushing stream of thought.

[Guillermo Castro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hablar de Nathaniel Hawthorne es hablar de los orígenes mismos de la literatura estadounidense. Nuestro autor nació en Nueva Inglaterra cinco años antes que Edgar Allan Poe y treinta y un años antes que Mark Twain. Su literatura es por tanto, fundadora de una escuela nacional que culmina un siglo después con los maestros del gótico sureño. Una frase de Shakespeare dice: "La vida es tan tediosa como un cuento contado dos veces" y de ahi proviene el irónico titulo de esta colección de relatos (1837), el primero en la carrera del escritor.

En retrospectiva, muchos críticos podrán decir que estos cuentos tempranos de Hawthorne no presentan las cualidades que sus contemporáneos europeos (o su compatriota Edgar Allan Poe) estaban desarrollando. En efecto, si comparamos los cuentos de Poe con los de Hawthorne, encontraremos que el primero es mucho más elegante, extendido e intenso (el poderío de Edgar Allan Poe con las letras puede ser avasallador y sus deslumbrantes cuentos tan bien escritos pueden opacar a cualquiera). No obstante, la mayor sencillez de Hawthorne, su romanticismo obscuro, su falso puritanismo y sus parábolas de interpretación abierta, fueron lo suficientemente convincentes para ganarse el respeto de su brillante colega y de todo el mundo literario de su época.

"Cuentos contados dos veces" contiene veintiséis relatos y la mayoría de ellos son breves y directos, presentando las suficientes descripciones y reiteraciones para que un lector primerizo no los encuentre complicados. En el mundo rural que describe Hawthorne, los personajes son sombríos e insignificantes, pero sus vivencias proporcionan una gran revelación que iluminará su metódica monotonía. Para reforzar sus mensajes el autor se puede valer de sucesos fantásticos e inverosímiles, pero al final ofrecerá una coherencia formal e ideológica no exenta de critica social.

En estas historias los templos son escenario de sucesos inesperados, las bodas traen malos presagios y las personas comunes son dadas a la imaginación supersticiosa. Los personajes menos convencionales (como predicadores, jueces, viudas y hombres de ciencia) se convierten en celebridades, constituyendo la principal fuente de comidilla para el pueblo.

El cuento más conocido de esta colección es el enigmático "Wakefield", una historia corta y sencilla, pero difícil de interpretar y encasillar. Trata sobre un hombre que toma como pretexto un viaje para separarse de su esposa; entonces renta un cuarto en la calle siguiente y se toma veinte años en regresar (aunque parece que ya adelanté el final del relato, ningún spoiler puede echarnos a perder esta lectura ya que el propio Hawthorne lo cuenta desde el primer párrafo. Lo interesante es conocer el motivo por el que un hombre se comportaría de esa manera). "Wakefield" tiene toda la apariencia de ser un cuento psicológico, muy adelantado a su tiempo pero también podría asociarse con elementos fantasticos. Dice Borges que "Wakefield" prefigura a esos personajes de conducta extraña como "Bartleby" de Herman Melville.

"El experimento del Dr. Heidegger" es un cuento mucho más sencillo y de índole fantástica que trata sobre la fuente de la eterna juventud y el irracional apego de ciertos seres por la lozanía y el arrebato juvenil.

"La catástrofe de Mr. Higginbotham" (También conocido como "El asesinato de Mr. Higginnbotham") no es un cuento negro, sino una sátira a aquellas personas que encuentran placer desmedido en el cotilleo (chisme), esparciendo sin escrúpulo noticias de las que ni siquiera tienen la seguridad de que sean ciertas. El escritor mantiene el misterio gracias al goteo de información contradictoria que mantiene al lector en vilo. Por si fuera poco, el final no será el que cabría esperar.

Otro cuento célebre es "El repique nupcial" (también conocido como "Una boda extraña") que narra el enlace entre dos personas mayores y en donde ocurren las situaciones inverosímiles y macabras que nos hacen confundir el género fantástico con el costumbrista.

"La hija de Rappaccini" es un magnífico relato que inspiró una adaptación teatral escrita por Octavio Paz. Aquí se hace evidente el gusto de Hawthorne por la mitología y las leyendas clásicas. En un ambiente surrealista, un joven estudiante se enamora de una femme fatale; hija de un cuestionado y poco escrupuloso doctor que obtiene sus remedios a partir de plantas venenosas. Este amor esta maldito, pues la toxicidad de las plantas se ha extendido al organismo de la doncella, quién se convierte en un ser involuntariamente peligroso. En lo literario, el autor se prodiga con mayor elegancia y profundidad descriptiva, dando la impresión de mayor madurez.

Quizás el cuento que genera más inquietud es "El velo negro del pastor" y como su título indica, trata sobre un predicador que de la noche a la mañana decide usar un velo que cubrirá sus ojos hasta el final de su vida. Aquí encontraremos la cualidad simbólica por la que nuestro cuentista es tan famoso. Hay escritores que son todo cabeza (psicología) como Dostoievski o Henry James; hay escritores que son todo humanidad (actitudes, gestos, ademanes) como Charles Dickens, y hay otros escritores más gráficos que otorgan un poder simbólico a ciertos objetos y anomalías. Hawthorne es uno de esos últimos, pues otorga el soplo divino a lo inanimado y convierte la gran anomalía en el detalle que le da sentido al cuento. En este caso el velo negro que según la liturgia "separa el tiempo de la eternidad", se convierte en un objeto siniestro que separa al pastor de sus temerosas ovejas. La clave para su lectura radica en descubrir si nuestro protagonista utiliza el velo para no ver, o -por el contrario- para no ser visto.

En resumen, los sencillos cuentos góticos y románticos de Nathaniel Hawthorne seguirán siendo del agrado de los lectores de nuestro tiempo. Sus originales historias basadas en curiosas y macabras situaciones despertarán la curiosidad del lector ocasional e incluso de los avanzados. Quizás su competidor más directo haya sido E.T.A. Hoffmann y no tanto Poe. Por último, al leer cuentos como "El velo negro" y "Wakefield" queda claro que Hawthorne fue una importante influencia para Franz Kafka.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

You may read online at DailyLit.

Contents:
THE GRAY CHAMPION
SUNDAY AT HOME
THE WEDDING-KNELL
THE MINISTER'S BLACK VEIL
THE MAYPOLE OF MERRY MOUNT
THE GENTLE BOY
MR. HIGGINBOTHAM'S CATASTROPHE
LITTLE ANNIE'S RAMBLE
WAKEFIELD
A RILL FROM THE TOWN-PUMP
THE GREAT CARBUNCLE
THE PROPHETIC PICTURES
DAVID SWAN
SIGHTS FROM A STEEPLE
THE HOLLOW OF THE THREE HILLS
THE TOLL-GATHERER'S DAY
THE VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN
FANCY'S SHOW-BOX
DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT
LEGENDS OF THE PROVINCE HOUSE
THE HAUNTED MIND
THE VILLAGE UNCLE
THE AMBITIOUS GUEST
THE SISTER-YEARS
SNOWFLAKES
THE SEVEN VAGABONDS
THE WHITE OLD MAID
PETER GOLDTHWAITE'S TREASURE
CHIPPINGS WITH A CHISEL
THE SHAKER BRIDAL
NIGHT-SKETCHES, BENEATH AN UMBRELLA
ENDICOTT AND THE RED CROSS
THE LILY'S QUEST
FOOTPRINTS ON THE SEASHORE
EDWARD FANE'S ROSEBUD
THE THREEFOLD DESTINY

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

As precious a book to me as there is. Each story gently folds back layer by layer revealing a hidden truth or fear or hope or love at it's heart. Though written in the early 1800's, the sense and perspective is not strictly masculine. Hawthorne inhabits and coveys both genders with equal delicacy and strength. Can be read as simple entertainment or left on the tongue to discern deeper flavors than readily apparent. Such a master of the short story form that to write anything longer seems a waste of time...until you read the Scarlet Letter or House of the Seven Gables...both wonderful and conveying the same majesty of narration and smooth drifting prose. Pity if we forget the masters.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars (rounded up to 4) for Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This is a collection of short stories that I read for a Classic book BINGO challenge I’m working on this year.

It was Hawthorne’s first published work, and it was good. Edgar Allan Poe named Hawthorne as the father of an “entirely new genre in American literature, … called the short story” in an essay in Graham’s magazine when Twice-Told Tales was released in an expanded edition in 1842. In the afterword for this edition, Hawthorne received praise from his contemporary Longfellow and later from Poe and Henry James - not too shabby.

Short stories are generally hit or miss for me - most of these are great, but a few missed the mark.

Looking back at the contents, some of the more memorable stories for me are:

The Prophetic Pictures
Fancy’s Show Box
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
The 4 Legends of Province House stories - kind of the heart of the collection- right in the middle
The Sister Years
The Seven Vagabonds
and Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure

There is a wide range of themes here - primarily fantasy, ghost stories, morality, life and death, and social commentary.

The quality of Hawthorne’s writing is superb. He wrote vivid descriptions and he pulled me right in as a reader to most of the stories. I read most of them in about 20-30 minutes each.

I recommend this short story collection for someone looking for quality/solid writing. I plan to revisit these stories again some day.

[Johann Tabua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very rarely does one pick up a book at the exact time they’re supposed to read it. When this happens the reader is elevated to more than a mere reader, they share a spiritual life with the characters on paper. This was the case as I read “Twice-Told Tales” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. All the stories in this book are catches for the untrained juggler of my present catastrophes. You see, I have been dealing mentally and emotionally as best I can with the reality of being male in such an anti-male climate as ours at the end of 2017 and this book offers insight into the fundamental differences between the general soul of man and woman. It deals with eternal themes of human conflict and affliction, the burden of understanding, and the frailty of dreams when time comes for the dreams to come to fruition.

In the story “David Swan” we find a young man who falls asleep and is thus unaware of the opportunities that enter into his life. In the story of “The Great Carbuncle” we find a quest gone awry for a number of seekers and the only two who are not doomed are they that put aside the idealization of the find. Well, of course, there is a cynic in this same story who you could say survives if you are to be generous, but he changes that it’s as almost as if he might as well be dead. His spectacles are gone and with that loss his perception of the world is decimated. The lucky couple who set aside the highest ambition are still much the same people if only a little more aware of the pitfalls of success, but I digress. In the story of “The Sister Years” we find what might be deemed a conversation between nihilism and hope. The old year talks to the new year offering an account of bleakness and blackness. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” we discover the trappings of youthful oblivion. The wisdom of age evaporates once the wheels of potential are back in motion. Come the story of “Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure” we recognize the hereditary damage of greed but on the hopeful side we come to reconcile the ancestor’s ambition with their descendant’s future by means of an unintentionally supplied road-map of what-not-to-do or of what-to-do-differently. There are plenty stories in “Twice-Told Tales” that fill the mind with thought.

Some of my favorites are “Chippings With a Chisel”, which deals with mourning and how best to go about it, and “The Gentle Boy”, which is about as far as I can ascertain the social disconnect birthed between the outside world and boyhood whenever that boyish nature comes into its thinking self foretelling a destination of manhood that speaks threat to congregational obedience. There are other stories in the twice-told tales that are wonderful and thought-provoking but for whatever reason I don’t feel like analyzing them too much just yet.

All in all Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Twice-Told Tales” are a magnificent collection of short stories. They touched me and made me think clearer about things that have been weighing on my mind. This is the second book of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s that I have read, the first being “The Scarlet Letter”, and I am hopeful to read more of his works. There is something in Hawthorne’s words that speaks rather powerfully to me. I cannot quite surmise my gratitude to this book. It is a book of genius in the sense of understanding life as a lesson. There are hinted at warnings throughout this book but there are also blessed descriptions of opportunities if you pay attention whilst reading. I recommend this book to everyone but most of all to people who are mad that the world is in such pointed conflict nowadays. I think this book will help shed light on why these conflicts arise seemingly out of nowhere as they do. It’s a worthwhile read.

[A.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember adoring Hawthorne in my graduate school days - especially The House of the Seven Gables - so I decided to revisit the author and read this collection of his short stories and essays, Twice Told Tales. It is November, and I think Hawthorne is best read in the fall, for there is something autumnal in his romantic musings.

There are 36 stories in this collection, ranging from fiction to what I would call short essays, since they express the author's reflections on an observation, be it a church steeple from a window ("Sunday at Home"), snow birds on a winter day ("Snowflakes"), a dark and stormy night ("Night-Sketches") or the Atlantic beach on a sunny September day ("Footprints on the Seashore"). The stories are set in New England, and many of them explore the region's Puritanical roots.

Hawthorne is considered an author of "Dark Romanticism," but I find him deeply introspective (rather than brooding) and spiritually optimistic. While his stories do examine the nature of sin, evil and humanity, they also seek beauty and spiritual truth and constantly challenge the rigid thinking that was prevalent in the nation's history, continuing up through Hawthorne's day (and, I would argue, to this day still).

The stories range from heartbreaking accounts of human cruelty ("Gentle Boy") to hilarious romps such as "Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe" - one of my absolute favorites. I also enjoyed "A Rill from the Town Pump," told from the perspective of a town's water pump, who blames the world's woes on liquor, tea and coffee:

"In this mighty enterprise the cow shall be my great confederate. Milk and water - the TOWN-PUMP and the Cow! such is the glorious copartnership that shall tear down the distilleries and brewhouses, uproot the vineyards, shatter the cider-presses, ruin the tea and coffee trade, and finally monopolize the whole business of quenching thirst. Blessed consummuation! Then Poverty shall pass away from the land . . . Then Disease . . . shall gnaw its own heart and die. Then Sin, if she do not die, shall lose half her strength."

Another must-read, especially as we head into 2013, is "The Sister Years" - a scathingly humorous personification of the Old Year and the New Year. This is one I wish I could just blog in its entirety. I love this advice from Sister Old Year to Sister New Year:

"I must bid you farewell, earnestly advising and exhorting you to expect no gratitude nor good-will from this peevish, unreasonable, inconsiderate, ill-intending and worse-behaving world. However warmly its inhabitants may seem to welcome you, yet do what you may and lavish on them what means of happiness you please, they will still be complaining, still craving what it is not in your power to give, still looking forward to some other year for the accomplishment of projects which ought never to have been formed, and which, if successful, would only provide new occasions of discontent. If these ridiculous people ever see anything tolerable in you, it will be after you are gone forever."

Also included in this collection is the classic "The Minister's Black Veil," a brilliant exploration of the dangers of an ascetic life and cutting oneself off from humanity. All of the stories are truly remarkable, and I have pages of highlights. These are tales I will revisit again when looking for inspiration or even just a good laugh at life's absurdities.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this collection one story a night over a couple of months, which is definitely the way to tackle it. While I can't say I loved every story in the collection, the compounded effect on my emotions was that of a rolling snowball that starts small, and by the bottom of the hill ends up taller than I am. Twice-Told Tales is...definitely taller than I am. And not just because I'm doubled over from the emotional gut punches.

The stories that didn't make my favorites lists tended to be more allegorical, sort of over-the-top moralizing fairy tales. Surprisingly (to me), I most loved the contemplative, observational slice-of life essays, particularly "Chippings with a Chisel" and "Foot-Prints on the Sand." I also enjoyed the (unexpected?) turns to humor in "A Rill from the Town Pump", "Mr. Higgenbotham's Catastrophe", and "David Swan". As a perennial fan of the gothic and macabre, I appreciated the hightened emotions and deft storytelling in "The Minister's Black Veil", "The Wedding Knell", "Lady Eleanore's Mantle", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," and "Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure". Finally, the twists in "The Three-Fold Destiny" brought the collection to a fitting close.

Most of all, I appreciated recognizing the seeds of writerly obsession for Hawthorne's later novels. Definitely recommend this collection for sipping and savoring.

[Adelaide Mcginnity · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Twice-Told Tales to be a delightfully varied collection of short stories linked by their shared setting of colonial New England. Within these pages, you will find works of humor, pseudo-religious parables, Gothic ghost stories, and fictionalized historical sketches. While Hawthorne has a tendency to become preachy at times (and is anything but subtle in his use of symbolism), he generally comports himself well across genres, and mostly avoids the penchant for purple prose that plagued many of his contemporaries.

What struck me the most about Hawthorne's often phantasmagorical portrait of a New England now past is how seamlessly it seems to progress into the thematically similar New England presented in the works of H P Lovecraft. Indeed, if you added in a few colors outside of the usual spectrum and peppered in a few references to the Necronomicon, these Twice Told Tales would be quite Lovecraftian indeed.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hawthorne is a master storyteller and excells in the short story form, much like Poe. In fact, Poe fans would appreciate Hawthorne's stories more than other folks due to their similarities. Poe, as a critic, despised most literature he reviewed, but was a fan of Hawthorne because of the way he used words. As Poe stated in his literary theory, he believed every word in a story is important because each word should move the story forward. Hawthorne's works do just that, especially the short stories. Highly recommended!

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hawthorne dislikes Puritanism but can’t escape its preoccupations.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been nibbling away at this volume for the last month or so, reading one story each night, and I found it an interesting way to re-enter a time in this land largely before the colonies had attained independent status. While some of Hawthorne's tales are set in the early 19th and later 18th centuries, most are placed in the years prior to the mid-18th century and even in the last part of the 17th.

What kind of reader might find these of interest? Anyone who might be at all curious about what "things were like" between 250 and 350 years ago, for one thing, a time long before big cities, paved highways, or anything approaching rapid communications. Hawthorne is a lovely writer, and his pages often contain pictorial representations of the people, houses, and woodlands of this now long-ago time in ways that are interesting and even enchanting.

One of his stories takes place on an evening as a snowstorm begins to fall, and his description of its slow accumulation, together with the scattered bare spots caused by swirling, mischievous winds, and the little town spread out around him gradually becoming enshrouded in white is lovely and, for a brief while, that little place now long gone lives again!

He has a few ghost stories in this volume, too, although much tamer -- and in a way much more interesting -- than the scarier, often bloodier, ones that pass for popular entertainment today.

These were vastly simpler times in many ways, and yet the same kind of struggles we know today existed then, too, if often much more in the open "for everyone to see" because the towns and villages were so much smaller and anonymity impossible.

Some of the characters here are Puritans, a people we remember (if at all) as being prudish and strict but who, in reality, were just people trying to make a go of it in a world that they regarded as often hostile and filled with the kind of temptations that could make one's life go seriously astray.

When I was a boy and a young man I loved science fiction, not least for the stories in that genre that featured some kind of time travel. Hawthorne here gives us an adult version of time travel, but in his words the times we travel to are not only in the lost past, but also were once true.

This book is a great reminder of the incredible adventures that can lie between just two simple, technologically "outmoded," paper covers!

[Matthew B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nathaniel Hawthorne is at his best in short forms, with stories like "The Great Carbuncle," "The Hollow of the Three Hills" (where we get the germ of the plot of The Scarlet Letter in the form of allusive fragments) and "The May-Pole of Merry Mount," when he cannot let the melodrama for which he has such a penchant get too protracted or overdrawn, and keep the plot focused on a single conceit. He is also at his most insufferable in short forms, with his plotless "sketches," where we get nothing but his typically tedious, verbose descriptions of scenery, by turns sentimental and moralizing, without an interesting story-line to offset them.

[Daniy ♠ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
Two or three of the tales were 5 stars, most were 2.5/3, and then a few really bad ones.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Gray Champion” — The style is antiquated, not surprisingly, and the story somewhat difficult for us to follow at this later date, far removed from the injustices heaped upon the pilgrims by the redcoats and the British authorities that would engender such a myth-making of a dignified lone man confronting the Governor and his forces. Interesting, but not recommended.

“Sunday at Home” — Let’s describe this in a high concept way: imagine Rear Window meets the 700 Club. The narrator here is a bit creepy, although his (and I assume it is a he, although that’s not made clear) language is quite lofty. There’s not much plot. The narrator comments on the sun rising and shining on the church which he can see from behind a curtained window across the way, then he continues to describe what occurs at the church on the sabbath. The creepiness is exactly what he notices, like how the young girls all wear white stockings. And, of course, there’s the racism, with a particular egregious line about how the “sable” colored rejoice in the fact that once they die, they will be white in heaven.

“The Wedding Knell” — The story here is interesting: two older people are getting married, and it turns out they were lovers in their youth but the woman had spurned the man and had married two other gentlemen in the intervening decades, only now agreeing to marry him in their aged decline, to use language like Hawthorne’s. And it is that language that makes this story less than enjoyable.

“The Minister’s Black Veil” — A fairly simple story about a minister who decided to extend a sermon’s metaphor long past reasonableness. It’s interesting, but the didactic lesson to be taken from it feels to have lost some of its surprise by the length of the story, especially considering the climax is clearly laid out fairly early on.

“The May-Pole of Merry Mount” — A historical sketch of the 1600s written in the early 1800s regarding a community conflict between two different settlements of New England, one that worshipped dance and gaiety and the other Puritan and stern. Hedonism loses out to Hard Work in this analogy. The way the story is told is fairly strange, at least to today’s reader, although the concept is quite understandable. But it’s not much of a story, but a picture of a time and a place that is so very far removed from us in its writing as what it was writing about in its day.

“The Gentle Boy” — We are very removed from the time of the Puritans and Quakers at war with each other. It’s impossible to really understand why, and Hawthorne’s goal here, in not describing exactly what heresies the Quakers believed, is to have you see the futility of the religious war. I didn’t quite follow why the child had such power over the adults, and the arch style makes it difficult to fully comprehend what Hawthorne intended.

“Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe” — A marvelous story about a peddler addicted to stories such that, on the basis of a small whisper, expounds it into a mad tale that he spreads, only to discover that he is spreading falsehoods. Compared to many of Hawthorne’s other stories, this one moves at a nice clip and has some really memorable scenes, such as the gentlemen who snorts smoke into the peddler’s face to inform him he’s a liar and the pelting of rocks and mud when he leaves the village. In fact, if anything, the ending is a bit rushed and “told” rather than shown. All in all, though, definitely one of my favorite stories of Hawthorne’s.

“Little Annie’s Ramble” — At once both experimental and yet not, this piece resembles a thought experiment taken shape. The narrator takes the hand of a little girl as she explores the world of her town, but the narrator is not present except in our minds, and the point of it all is to show what we forget or miss of the halcyon days of childhood when we grow old and complacent and cynical. Enjoyable.

“Wakefield” — An exceedingly strange thought experiment of a story of a husband who sets off on a normal journey one day but does not return to his home and wife until twenty years pass, instead taking lodgings in just one street over. I’m not entirely sure what Hawthorne’s purpose was in this tale and the lack of clarity—mainly regarding personal economics—means it has an atmosphere of some contemplation as a dream without attempting to realize how it actually might have occurred.

“A Rill from the Town-Pump” — Not so much a story as a lecture delivered by the most unlikely source, the water pump in the middle of town. The subject: how deleterious other drink is compared to the multi-benefits of water from a clear spring. I wonder at how experimental such a composition was in 1835, for it seems like such at this date. Interesting and short enough not to be too annoying.

“The Great Carbuncle” — An allegory about the search for something—in this case a great jewel—that it threatens to upend your life, no matter the reasons you give for searching for the thing.

“The Prophetic Pictures” — The premise is much more interesting than Hawthorne’s execution. A painter visits America, creating a small social storm in that he’s willing to paint anybody but only those whom he sees something in that makes his art worthwhile. Many people apply, but only few are chosen. A married couple sit for him and the resulting paintings worry them—there’s something dark in the man’s complexion and fear or horror in the woman’s. Yes, the title gives it away, as does Hawthorne’s heavy hand, making the ending quite anti-climatic.

“David Swan: A Fantasy” — The fantasy of the title is that of “what might have been.” A young man on the road to Boston to join his uncle’s firm takes rest in a copse of trees next to a babbling spring and falls asleep, and while he sleeps, three events occur that could have meant a much different future for him. Yet, he sleeps and knows not these dreams. Hawthorne’s purpose is to expose to the reader that such events occur all the time for each and every one of us, and no one can predict what fate might actually occur.

“Sights from a Steeple” — Not much of a story; more like a vignette describing a town and some of its inhabitants. There’s a touch more artifice here than in the other stories, with only a brief nod to a plot. Skipable.

“The Hollow of the Three Hills” — A fantasy story in which a distraught woman seeks a witch to enable her to hear the sounds of those she left behind in another place. Through three listening events, the old crone enables her to hear her parents, her husband, and what has become of her child. It’s well done, but the moral of the story is readily apparent, as the resolution of the story makes clear.

“The Toll-Gatherer’s Day” — No story here, just a description of the day in the life of a bridge toll-taker, enumerating the varied people who pass over (and in one particular case of a schooner, under) his bridge. Interesting for an insight into the world of the early 1800s.

“The Vision of the Fountain” — The story isn’t much, but the descriptions by Hawthorne are extremely vivid, something I would do well to study, as I’ve been told my own are sketchy and plain. The tale centers around the fancy of a young man who thinks he has caught sight of a lovely girl in a spring and then a rainbow, who yearns for her an entire season, then discovers her once again right before departure. A forlorn tale, for sure, but one that both highlights the intensity of young love, even imagined, and the facts of the situation.

“Fancy’s Show Box: A Morality” — This is basically a sermon about whether a human has committed a sin if they merely thought about doing it rather than performing the actual act. I’ll save you the trouble of reading it by saying Hawthorne’s opinion is that, while it takes an act to seal a person’s guilt, people should be careful not to judge those who did act, for they are stained with the strong possibility that they could have committed the crime, and the only judge is eternity.

“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” — Another morality tale, but a slightly more clever premise: give four old people who were all horrible in their youths and middle age the chance to turn back the years with a drink from the Fountain of Youth, and will they have learned their lesson and decide to do better the second time around? That’s the experiment, and whether the water is an actual elixir or simply a delusional drug isn’t the issue, it’s the reaction by these four and Heidegger’s interpretation of the results. The style is not the fashion of today, but the story is well done and amusing.

“Legends of the Province-House” — Four (kinda ghost) tales (“Howe’s Masquerade,” "Edward Randolph's Portrait," "Lady Eleanore's Mantle," and "Old Esther Dudley”) about the house of the colonial governors of the US, mainly interesting for the insight into that period of American history and the transition between the British governance and the newly formed country. It’s a bit like trying to read Ulysses, however, in that we are so far removed now from that time period that the names of the governors and generals don’t resonate with us as they would have for people of the time or when Hawthorne wrote this.

“The Haunted Mind” — I’ve read a lot of flash fiction recently and one of the tendencies of writers in that form is to resort to the use of the second person to try and involve the reader. Interesting to note that this is no newfangled idea, as Hawthorne did the same, addressing the reader here as one who awakes from a dream at two in the morning and then ponders on both dreams and nightmares. And, like most stories using second person, I didn’t care for it.

“The Village Uncle: An Imaginary Retrospect” — The value today for the reader of these tales is the detailed pictures that Hawthorne is able to depict of a life in the past. This particular story is especially so, the Village Uncle being an elderly patriarch of his fishing town, once a fisherman himself, who wooed and wed and built his small cabin with the jaw of a whale for the doorway, who waxes eloquently about his entire life. The listing of the fish he once caught, the fun and sad tales of what he saw overtake others, and then, finally, his view on the everlasting: one could use this story alone as the background for setting one’s own story in this past.

“The Ambitious Guest” — Well, that story went somewhere that I didn’t expect. What seems to be a simple story about a traveler coming to a place secluded under the mountain on a trail, happy to share their hearth and food, turns out to be a surprising rendition of the 17th century version of being hit by a semi when crossing the road. The point, I gather, is to note that one must live for the moment.

“The Sister Years” — Not so much a story as an extended metaphor in which the Old Year and the New Year are personified as sisters passing in the night, mainly intended as a method by which to denounce the perfidy of humans, or perhaps a warning or admonition to do better in the coming year. The amusing aside about politics, including the trouble with Texas, was the best part of it.

“Snow-Flakes” — Another “tale” that’s not much of a story but a descriptive personification of concepts, in this case, Old Man Winter and that tart, Spring. Hey, it allows Hawthorne to show off his vocabulary and imagination. But I still want more.

“The Seven Vagabonds” — Seven people gather in a wagon during a drenching rain, seven very different people, all with a purpose to go to a meeting. They share their professions, with the narrator, an itinerate novelist barely managing to gain any respect from the others: a puppet master, a bookseller, a young man and woman musicians with a slide show, a fortune-teller, and a native American. It’s not a story, but a vignette used to describe these characters of the time.

“The White Old Maid” — Every so often when reading a story these days (and I mean a newly written ones, not just the ones from a century or two ago), I simply fail to follow what’s happening in the story. That’s the case with this one. I have no idea who these two women are, what exactly their “deal,” nor how the ending resolves all of it. I’m just confused.

“Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure” — A longish tale, but an interesting one, about a man whose treasure is said to be left him by his grandfather somewhere in the house and who then proceeds to deconstruct the dwelling until he finds it. And, when he does, what he finds the treasure consists of.

“Chippings with a Chisel” — More of a thought(ful) piece than a story, this is a series of vignettes occasioned by the narrator’s friendship with a sculptor of tombstones, commenting on the many and varied things people have carved into such for the recently or (in some cases) nearly departed. There’s a moral here, though, about the usefulness and questionable necessity of granite markers for the dead that’s not quite as straightforward as one might expect.

“The Shaker Bridal”— One gets the feeling from reading this story that Hawthorne was not a fan of the Shaker sect, for his depiction of the enforced loveless austerity of these members is not joyful or kind. The story, in fact, ends on a note that indicates at least one person regrets having joined. From a modern point-of-view, the story is interesting for how it depicts how some people can choose to set themselves apart from the world, which still happens today.

“Night Sketches” — As the title implies, this is not so much a story as an exercise in description. The would-be writer can use this kind of thing, as Hawthorn had a way with capturing the people and settings of his time, so that if one were to be writing a historical story set in this period, Bob’s your uncle.

“Endicott and the Red Cross” — Not much of a story, but at least it tries to be a story rather than a sketch like the last couple of pieces. The tale is simple: Endicott, a Puritan leader, gets news from the Governor that the King of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury intends to, by edict and more, control the religion of the colonies. In response, he takes the red cross from the flag, signifying his break with king and church. The most interesting thing about this story, however, may be an early aside describing people who had been in the pillory as well as those in observance, including one woman who had artfully embroidered a scarlet A that she had to wear on her clothing. Thirteen years later, Hawthorne would publish an entire book about her.

“The Lily’s Quest” — Quite a depressing tale of two lovers trying to find a place for the pantheon of happiness, with a sour and dour figure always finding something ugly in the past that had happened for every spot they find. It shows Hawthorne’s imagination to come up with so many ugly scenarios, as well as the overall story, which supposedly ends in a moral, but one that seems to have been undercut by the story itself.

“Foot-Prints on the Sea-Shore” — Another rumination, showing off Hawthorne’s skill in description, as he takes off for a meditative day on the beach. His ability to paint a picture of the shore is unmatched; I just wish there was a story there to accompany it.

“Edward Fane’s Rosebud” — Many of Hawthorne’s short stories talk about young lovers who were not meant to be, as the times he wrote about had ideas about the propriety of whom married whom, the colonies having inherited some of the classism of the old world even as they struggled to make their lives in a new land. This story is about the woman of such a couple, whose lover’s mother would not see him attached to a young lady not of his station, and so she is spurned to then marry a man much older than herself, becoming his nurse as his infirmities take hold, and having done that, to find her calling to be a nurse to others in the community on their death beds until, at last, her first lover also is on his. And now that I’ve summarized it for you, is it worth reading? Yes, because Hawthorne imbues all of this with much more pathos than I’ve even attempted.

“The Threefold Destiny: A Faery Legend” — It’s not really a fairy story, although there’s a fanciful quality to it. Instead, it’s about a dreamer who left the poor New England village where he grew up to explore the world, only to find that the fancies of his dreams were to be found back in the village. I liked it as much as I like “It’s a Wonderful Life”—that is, not very much. I don’t care for the moral of either.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! Everything about it is perfect. The preface, the introduction, the author bio, and every single story. I only wish there were another 100 stories - I didn't want it to end. It most certainly isn't an easy read. I don't think it is any secret that Hawthorne is dense and tough to read. He can say in a beautiful fifty word sentence what a contemporary author would say in ten. And he says it all backwards and upside down. Half of reading Hawthorne is solving the puzzles that each of his sentences resemble. But I'm a classics geek and I couldn't get enough of it. I think it helped that they were short stories which makes it easier to put the book down after a couple of exhausting stories, knowing that when you pick it up again you will be starting fresh with a whole new story. I'm not sure whether I'm up to The Scarlet Letter, which I vaguely remember hating in high school, or The House of Seven Gables quite yet, but if another hundred short stories were suddenly unearthed somewhere, sign me on. This book is a beautiful introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could find the NYT article that prompted me to bookmark this as a must-read. It was among several listed as quintessential to understanding the human race (or, alternately, our times, our country, our planet... will eventually find the thing).

Hawthorne's language comes off as a bit stilted, but the tales, myths and legends themselves stand the test of time. They resonate with life lessons on such topics as humility, greed, and pride while channeling the cultural vibe and attitudes of early New England so perfectly. Most could be described as cautionary tales, sometimes bordering on the creepy. This perception was validated when my exploration of the work turned me onto the fact there's a 1963 horror movie of the same title starring Vincent Price. Hunting that down next.

[Paula Cappa · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG, Hawthorne is really the writer who can cut in deeply. His writing is so emotional. I loved his Twice-Told Tales. He's become my "go to" author when I want to sink into another world. Many of his stories are set in Massachusetts or Boston in 19th century, of course. A real escape to the past in imagery and style. Love it.

[Rodrigo Éker · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Cuentos contados dos veces" es un gran ejemplo de por qué se considera a Nathaniel Hawthorne uno de los mejores escritores en lengua inglesa de todos los tiempos. Constituido enteramente por sus relatos tempranos recopilados de viejas revistas literarias, esta colección demuestra su destreza narrativa y su sensibilidad emocional a medida que explora las más diversas temáticas: el amor, la pérdida, el fanatismo religioso, la vejez, la ambición, el paso del tiempo, el folklore, lo sobrenatural y las leyendas antiguas, entre muchos otros.
Vemos aquí pequeños bosquejos de lo que luego se transformaría en su estética madura: el Romanticismo Oscuro, plagado de fantasmas y experiencias sobrenaturales de naturaleza ambigua. Si bien algunos cuentos son mejores que otros, ninguno decepciona y, en su conjunto, el compilado se lee de manera muy armoniosa.
El legado más célebre de este libro, y quizás la razón por la que más se lo suele recordar hoy, fue por haber sido el primer texto en poner por escrito el término "Jack-o-lantern" para referirse a la calabaza de Halloween (detalle completamente ausente de esta traducción).
Los cuentos más recomendables son: El niño amable, El Gran Carbunclo, El experimento del Dr. Heidegger, Leyendas de la Casa Provincial y El tesoro de Peter Goldwaite.

[Supineny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently, I was bowled over by Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown" (not in this collection). It was a sharp sort of satire, broadened by a window into now-obscure puritan society, taken to a shocking level of high fantasy, all done in grim tones that resonate well in the modern age. It seemed strikingly timeless.

This, the first of his several anthologies of short stories (expanded into a two volume set some years after the release of the first volume), is a mixed bag.

At first I was kind of disappointed -- there is a certain timelessness to Goodman Brown that seemed contradicted by some other stories, which have elements that, at first glance, seem unpleasantly quaint, pandering to popular taste of a faded era. For instance, the piously condescending remarks about three black characters who appear towards the end of "Sunday at Home" are quite jarring, coming as they do after an interesting lyrical essay. Similarly, in "The Wedding Knell," the depiction of a widow's desire to marry, at last, her first love at the age of 65 is infused with jarringly cruel descriptions of her decrepitude and vanity (indeed the whole bizarre, somewhat Edgar Allan Poe-like plot seems based on the idea of punishing her for her desire to open a new, long-desired chapter in her life. It seemed a bit like Hawthorne was in fact a bit pompous and naive in displeasing ways that one might allow for, given his other charms, but the result was dated, not timeless.)

However, reading more stories, and reading about Hawthorn, I'm coming to a different perspective. It seems that I was mistaking the narrators of the stories as being Hawthorne. But it seems like that is a mistake, that in fact the invisible story teller is often as much a fiction as the characters in the story, often imbued with prejudices from bygone eras or colored by their temperament. The pious but naively racist narrator of "Sunday at Home" is not Hawthorne, but whoever that strange person is who narrates that story (he admits to spending entire days doing nothing but regarding a local church out his window, giving him a sort of ghostly incorporeality.) There's much shifting ground in Hawthorne, and much that is uncertain. I realize, this was quite true of Goodman Brown-- the riviting demonic worship ceremony that is at the heart of that piece is, in the end, left highly ambiguous. We never know if it 'actually' happened, or whether it was a figment of Goodman Brown's imagination. And, as the narrator's voice seems to shift from story to story -- now a pious Puritan, now a skeptic -- we don't really know who is telling the tale and whether her or she is reliable. I was upset by the nature of "The Wedding Knell" but in the first few lines of the story it's mentioned that the author heard the tale from his grandmother, and it might well be the grandmother who is imparting the unsparing vision of a vain woman who refused to accept her role as submissive to time.

Last night I read "The Hollow of Three Hills", which seemed to fit the new pattern I see. The tale seems to portray a young woman's seance mediated by an ancient witch. It goes deep into a misty world of hallucination, so troubling to the young woman that we are not sure if her inability to get up at the end is because of her despair or her sudden death. In any event, the witch delivers the final line of the story addressed to herself and to the reader -- "Here's been a sweet hour's sport!" In short, we don't really know if any of the apparitions seen by the woman were in any way tethered to reality, or were a game of the witch's. Indeed, we don't even know if the story really happened because the whole tale is like a ghost story one might tell at a campfire for 'a sweet hour's sport'.

Looking forward to reading more. The Penguin Classics "Selected Tales and Sketches" has an very helpful introduction by Michael J. Colcurcio that puts Hawthorne's work and career into perspective, I highly recommend it.

[Chrystal · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Minister's Black Veil" is an exceptional, 5-star story. The other stories in this collection are pretty stultifying. I read through 34 stories, over 400 pages, hoping to find another such gem, but it was not to be. Having read 2 mind-numbing novels and these similarly dry stories, my acquaintance with Mr. Hawthorne is officially over.

[David]

And still another from 93-94, my “Aubepine” year.

[Jess (Jessie’s World of Books)]

Maybe I’ll pick it up later but it was too depressing for my taste. DNF @ chapter 7.