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A review by scrooge3
Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne
3.0
The first edition was published in 1846 with 23 stories, and later expanded to 26 stories in 1854. This edition reprints 11 of them. Most of the stories are allegorical and depict some of the darker aspects of human nature. The stories don’t hold up particularly well for modern readers, being somewhat wordy and not especially sophisticated. My brief comments about each story follow.
• “The Birthmark” (1843) • A scientist endeavors to remove his wife’s birthmark and discovers that Nature is often unforgiving.
• “Young Goodman Brown” (1835) • A pious young man is surprisingly tempted to turn to evil by a dream of the devil.
• “Rappaccini's Daughter” (1844) • A young man courts a woman with a mysterious secret, dooming them both to the machinations of her father, a callous scientist.
• “Mrs. Bullfrog” (1837) • A groom discovers his new bride’s secret, but decides to make the best of it.
• “The Celestial Railroad” (1843) • Travelling to the afterlife has never been more spectacular, but then, aren’t dreams supposed to be?
• “The Procession of Life” (1843) • A metaphoric, meditative essay about life and death.
• “Feathertop: A Moralized Legend” (1852) • A witch turns a scarecrow into a man, and all goes well until the man sees himself for what he truly is.
• “Egotism; or, The Bosom Serpent” (1843) • A snake resides inside a man’s abdomen, but is it real or is it a symbol of the man’s jealous egotism?
• “Drowne's Wooden Image” (1844) • A woodcarver is uniquely inspired to create a beautiful woman for a ship’s figure-head.
• “Roger Malvin's Burial” (1832) • A soldier is troubled for years after abandoning his dying comrade.
• “The Artist of the Beautiful” (1844) • An idealistic watchmaker spends his life imbuing the essence of the beauty of nature into a delicate replication of a butterfly.
• “The Birthmark” (1843) • A scientist endeavors to remove his wife’s birthmark and discovers that Nature is often unforgiving.
• “Young Goodman Brown” (1835) • A pious young man is surprisingly tempted to turn to evil by a dream of the devil.
• “Rappaccini's Daughter” (1844) • A young man courts a woman with a mysterious secret, dooming them both to the machinations of her father, a callous scientist.
• “Mrs. Bullfrog” (1837) • A groom discovers his new bride’s secret, but decides to make the best of it.
• “The Celestial Railroad” (1843) • Travelling to the afterlife has never been more spectacular, but then, aren’t dreams supposed to be?
• “The Procession of Life” (1843) • A metaphoric, meditative essay about life and death.
• “Feathertop: A Moralized Legend” (1852) • A witch turns a scarecrow into a man, and all goes well until the man sees himself for what he truly is.
• “Egotism; or, The Bosom Serpent” (1843) • A snake resides inside a man’s abdomen, but is it real or is it a symbol of the man’s jealous egotism?
• “Drowne's Wooden Image” (1844) • A woodcarver is uniquely inspired to create a beautiful woman for a ship’s figure-head.
• “Roger Malvin's Burial” (1832) • A soldier is troubled for years after abandoning his dying comrade.
• “The Artist of the Beautiful” (1844) • An idealistic watchmaker spends his life imbuing the essence of the beauty of nature into a delicate replication of a butterfly.