Introduction

Abstract

Abstract With the publication of Twice-Told Tales in 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne gained recognition as an important American author; “a new star rises in the heavens,” declared his friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in a review of the book. Some thirteen years later, with the publication of The Scarlet Letter (1850), Hawthorne joined the ranks of Americaߣs greatest writers. “None but a man of true genius and a highly cultivated mind could have written it,” declared a typical contemporary review. “It is a work of rare, we may say of fearful power.” During the 150 years since the publication of his masterpiece, Hawthorne has continued to occupy a central place in the American literary canon despite major shifts in critical fashions and reading tastes. Although recent scholarship has revealed the ways that influential friends, editors, and publishers assisted in the construction of Hawthorneߣs literary reputation, his short stories and novels continue to speak to a reading public fascinated by stories of sin and guilt and by exceptional individuals struggling with themselves and repressive institutions.