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karenrj 's review for:
The Marble Faun
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I actually read this back in college, and loved it then. I still really like it, and enjoyed rereading it and following the mysteries of Miriam's and Donatello's pasts. This time, I was on a deadline and was not able to appreciate the long descriptive passages as I did the first time. It takes some imagination, but you can really begin to share the mindset of someone for whom reading was far more of a gateway to foreign places than it is today.
It was something of a shock to see how anti-Catholic Hawthorne was, but, because I can remember hearing people expressing similar feelings in my own lifetime, I'm not sure why I was surprised.
Hawthorne's characters are always in service of his ideas, and I'm struck now by how character types recur in his fiction, but it's always gripping, and his insights into human nature are amazing. I see why two of my 20th century favorites--Faulkner and O'Connor--found him so compelling.
It was something of a shock to see how anti-Catholic Hawthorne was, but, because I can remember hearing people expressing similar feelings in my own lifetime, I'm not sure why I was surprised.
Hawthorne's characters are always in service of his ideas, and I'm struck now by how character types recur in his fiction, but it's always gripping, and his insights into human nature are amazing. I see why two of my 20th century favorites--Faulkner and O'Connor--found him so compelling.