Nathaniel Hawthorne

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A sequence of compact sketches: a rain-dark canal passage, a pitiable apple-dealer, the tortured artist Owen Warland torn between ideal beauty and crude practicality, and a museum of fanciful curiosities.
Central motifs: decay, solitude, the conflict of spirit versus material utility, and the virtuoso’s sterile connoisseurship.
Tone: elegiac and satirical, exposing the cost of modernity and the melancholy of misunderstood genius.

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Zenobia, wounded by Hollingsworth's rejection, gives Priscilla a token, leaves Blithedale and drowns herself.
Coverdale, Hollingsworth and Silas Foster recover her body at night; she is buried in the pasture amid contested explanations of her act.
Years later Coverdale records Hollingsworth living withdrawn with Priscilla, reflects on the ruinous effects of single‑minded philanthropy, and confesses he himself had loved Priscilla.

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A collection of Hawthorne’s White Mountains tales, framed by his notes and sketches.
“The Great Stone Face” follows Ernest, whose simple goodness ultimately fulfills a local prophecy.
“The Ambitious Guest” and “The Great Carbuncle” explore doomed ambition and the moral cost of seeking fame or treasure.

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Phœbe departs after brief intimacies at the Seven Gables while Holgrave, observant and mesmeric, remains in the house. Judge Pyncheon is found dead, Hepzibah and Clifford flee and are momentarily suspected, and Holgrave and Phœbe confront and disclose the incident. An old deed is recovered, the family’s fortunes and residence are rearranged, and Phœbe and Holgrave form a confirmed attachment.