Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales

This selection of twenty of Hawthorne's most important tales begins with 'The Gentle Boy', published in 1832, and concludes with 'Ethan Brand', which first appeared in 1850. Rich in allegory and imaginative symbolism, the tales illustrate the development of Hawthorne's preoccupations with the themes of guilt and secrecy, intellectual and moral pride, with the aesthetic representation of the supernatural, and with the decadence (as he percieved it) of New England Puritainism.

This edition notes all the significant texutal changes made by the author to the tales, and provides detailed explanatory notes on Hawthorne's sources and allusions, taking into accounta ll recent Hawthorne scholarship. --back cover