Description: This volume provides a comprehensive overview of Nathaniel Hawthorne and demonstrates why he continues to be a critically significant figure in American literature. The first section focuses on Hawthorne's interest in and knowledge of past (Puritan and colonial) and contemporary nineteenth-century history (women's, African American, Native American) as the inspiration for his writings and the source of his literary success. The second section explores his fascination with social history and popular culture by examining topics as mesmerism, utopian life styles, theatrical performances, and artistic innovations. The third section looks at how Hawthorne succeeded and excelled in the literary marketplace, as an author of children's literature, literary sketches, and historical romances. In the fourth section, Hawthorne's literary precursors, peers, colleagues, and successors are analyzed. In the final section, Hawthorne's attachment to family, nature, and home is examined as the source of creative inspiration and philosophical questing.
Brief description: Monika M. Elbert is Professor of English and Distinguished University Scholar at Montclair State University, New Jersey. Former editor of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, she has published extensively on Hawthorne (Encoding the Letter A: Gender and Authority in Hawthorne's Early Fiction (1990), two editions of The Scarlet Letter, and numerous essays on Hawthorne and other American nineteenth-century authors). Recent books include co-edited collections: Romantic Education in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: National and Transatlantic Contexts (2015); Haunting Realities: Naturalist Gothic and American Realism (2017); Anglo-American Travelers and the Hotel Experience in Nineteenth-Century Literature (2017).