The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne with Illustrations by Nicholas Tamblyn and Katherine Eglund (Illustrated) - Softcover

Presenting The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne with illustrations by Nicholas Tamblyn and Katherine Eglund. These classics are part of The Great Books Series by Golding Books.

A preeminent figure of early American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne is also an important figure in feminist literature and as an author of realist fiction (The Scarlet Letter has also been called a dark novel, a political novel, and a pessimistic novel ahead of its time). Hester Prynne is a unique character in classic American fiction, a complex and enduring heroine, called "among the first and most important female protagonists in American literature."

The House of the Seven Gables is a Gothic novel that explores themes of guilt, retribution, and atonement, Hawthorne's follow-up novel to the highly successful The Scarlet Letter. H. P. Lovecraft called it "New England's greatest contribution to weird literature" (in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature"). It also falls under the banner of dark fiction, and has been an influence on many important writers since.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. Graduating from Bowdoin College, he published his first novel, Fanshawe, in 1828, but later tried to suppress it due to its perceived deficiencies. Publishing several short stories in periodicals, these were collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales, which gained him a small amount of notice. Subsequent popular novels include The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and The Blithedale Romance (1852). Suffering from failing health in later life, Hawthorne died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, in 1864.