Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories

Mosses from an Old Manse, collection of short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in two volumes in 1846. The 25 tales and sketches of this volume—written while Hawthorne lived at the Old Manse in Concord, Mass., the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ancestors—include some of the author’s finest short works. Many of the Romantic themes found in Hawthorne’s longer fiction are addressed in the stories—for example, the conflict between reason and emotion in the Gothic tales “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Birthmark” and between Puritan religion and the supernatural in “Young Goodman Brown.” Also noteworthy are the title essay describing the parsonage and “Roger Malvin’s Burial,” a historical tale. The element of simple genius, the quality of imagination. That is the real charm of Hawthorne’s writing—this purity and spontaneity and naturalness of fancy.