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"The first extended study ever made of an American writer. It still remains one of the best."-Edmund Wilson
Originally published in 1879, Henry James's Hawthorne has been out of print for many years. Cornell University Press is proud to make this American classic available again in a new paperback edition.
In this critique of one literary genius by another, James not only considers Hawthorne as a man and a writer, for whom he has a tender, if critical, regard, but he uses his subject as a vantage point from which to present his views on American culture. With his customary urbanity, James assesses the place of the writer in nineteenth-century America, and touches upon the antithetical values of the Old World and the New.
Hawthorne's preoccupation with evil and guilt, his portentous imagination, and his otherworldliness are brought out in the critique of his works, together with James's keen appreciation of Hawthorne's remarkable gifts.