Twice-Told Tales (The World's Best Reading)

Full Leather Hardcover 335 pages. Condition Fine Issued with NO Dust Jacket. Reader's Digest World's Best Reading Reprint edition 1989. Elegant dark blue boards and 1/4 black spine with gilt embossing shows off this Clean, tight, square copy with no marks, highlights or bookplates. Book Well kept and carefully stored in unread condition. No shelf wear. Not an ex-library, book club or remainder copy.

Laid in four page newsletter.

A collection of thirty-nine Hawthorne's pieces, consisting of short fiction, allegories and narrative essays. Originally issued in 1837 and 1841 (nine years before the publication of his "breakout" work The Scarlet Letter), these volumes take their name from the fact that all the tales contained herein are "twice-told" in the sense that each had been published before, almost all anonymously, in journals of the time (many in The Token and Atlantic Souvenir.

The greatest gift the reader receives by reading all of these tales is an intimate acquaintance with the young Hawthorne: brooding, reflective, with a profound interest in both colonial and revolutionary history, given to solitary walks and meditations, and yet warm-hearted and forever open to the rich variety of human life that New England town life had to offer.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history.

Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States President Franklin Pierce.