Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun

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As Hawthorne noted in his preface, it was “seven or eight years” since he “appeared before the public” as an author, seven if one counts his children’s book,

Tanglewood Tales

, published in 1853, eight if one goes back to 1852, when he published

The Blithedale Romance

, the last of the three major romances published in two years. In May he had purchased Bronson Alcott’s house in Concord, named it “The Wayside”, and declared, “[I] feel myself, for the first time in my life, at home”. He would not remain there long. On 27 July, his sister Louisa was killed in a steamboat accident on the Hudson River, and the tone of his letters darkened. Yet he continued to write, this time a campaign biography for his old friend from college days at Bowdoin, Franklin Pierce. When Pierce…

2985 words

Citation: Daly, Robert. "The Marble Faun". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 September 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=225, accessed 19 March 2024.]

225 The Marble Faun 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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