Twice-Told Tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne
eBook
(Laurus Book Society, Dec. 20, 2019)
Twice-Told Tales is a short story collection in two volumes by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first was published in the spring of 1837, and the second in 1842. The stories had all been previously published in magazines and annuals, hence the name.In college Hawthorne had excelled only in composition and had determined to become a writer. Upon graduation, he had written an amateurish novel, Fanshawe, which he published at his own expenseâonly to decide that it was unworthy of him and to try to destroy all copies. Hawthorne, however, soon found his own voice, style, and subjects, and within five years of his graduation he had published such impressive and distinctive stories as âThe Hollow of the Three Hillsâ and âAn Old Womanâs Tale.â By 1832, âMy Kinsman, Major Molineuxâ and âRoger Malvinâs Burial,â two of his greatest talesâand among the finest in the languageâhad appeared. âYoung Goodman Brown,â perhaps the greatest tale of witchcraft ever written, appeared in 1835.His increasing success in placing his stories brought him a little fame. Unwilling to depend any longer on his unclesâ generosity, he turned to a job in the Boston Custom House (1839â40) and for six months in 1841 was a resident at the agricultural cooperative Brook Farm, in West Roxbury, Mass. Even when his first signed book, Twice-Told Tales, was published in 1837, the work had brought gratifying recognition but no dependable income. By 1842, however, Hawthorneâs writing had brought him a sufficient income to allow him to marry Sophia Peabody; the couple rented the Old Manse in Concord and began a happy three-year period that Hawthorne would later record in his essay âThe Old Manse.â