Nathaniel Hawthorne 
Twice-Told Tales 

This is the annotated edition including both volumes of the original book, a rare and extensive biographical essay on the author, as well as an essay by Edgar Allan Poe on Hawthorne’s tale-writing.

Hawthorne’s early stories were collected in 1837 and published under the title ‚Twice-Told Tales.‘ They include two of the stories founded on early New England annals, — ‚The Gray Champion, ‚ based on a tradition of one of the judges of Charles I., and ‚The Maypole of Merry-Mount, ‚ in which Endicott appears as the embodiment of the Puritan spirit. Besides these are the allegories ‚Fancy’s Show Box, ‚ ‚The Great Carbuncle, ‚ and ‚ The Prophetic Pictures ; ‚ ‚The Hollow of the Three Hills, ‚ one of the typical stories of witchcraft, foreshadowing some of his later and more powerful work; the curious study, ‚Wakefield‘, the popular ‚Rill from the Town Pump ;‘ the pretty‘ fantasy, ‚ David Swan, ‚ in which the lighthearted boy goes on his pilgrimage unconscious of the shadows of possibilities that have fallen across his sleeping face; the pathetic story of Quaker suffering, ‚The Gentle Boy ; ‚ ‚ Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, ‚ -‚ touching a subject which recurs again in ‚ Septimius Felton ‚ and ‚ The Dolliver Romance ;‘ and the light humor of ‚Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe, -‚ — thus including almost every class of subject on which he afterward touched, though in all he rose to higher levels in his later work. ‚