Nathaniel Hawthorne

In Short

Edited by Bliss Perry, this representative collection gathers eight of Nathaniel Hawthorne's finest short tales, showcasing his mastery of American gothic allegory and psychological realism. Across these stories, characters wrestle with mortal limits: an alchemist seeks to erase his wife's minor flaw, an ambitious traveler seeks fame only to meet sudden death, a man abandons his home to live next door unnoticed, and a lonely seeker finds an ideal hero in a mountain profile. Hawthorne's enduring power rests in his precise, melancholic probing of the human heart, where pride and obsession inevitably clash with nature.

The Story

The volume charts a journey through human obsession, spiritual pride, and the quiet tragedies of ordinary life. It opens with "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," wherein an aged physician offers four decrepit friends a draft from the Fountain of Youth. Though transformed temporarily into lively youths, they instantly repeat the foolish mistakes and rivalries of their pasts, proving that experience rarely teaches wisdom.

In "The Birthmark," the brilliant scientist Aylmer marries the beautiful Georgiana, but becomes obsessively fixated on a tiny crimson hand-shaped mark on her cheek. Driven by a desire for absolute perfection, Aylmer uses all his scientific skill to craft an elixir that will remove the flaw. Georgiana drinks the potion, and while the birthmark fades away completely, the loss of her earthly imperfection costs her life, leaving Aylmer with only a tragic victory over mortality.

"Ethan Brand" follows a former lime-burner who returns to his mountain kiln after years of searching the world for the Unpardonable Sin. He declares that he has found it within his own heart: an intellectual pride so vast that it reduced human souls to subjects of cold psychological experiments. Realizing the horror of his self-inflicted isolation from humanity, Brand plunges into the blazing furnace, leaving behind only a calcified, heart-shaped piece of marble.

"Wakefield" examines a man who walks out on his wife under the pretense of a short trip, only to take a room in the next street and observe her life from afar for twenty years. By stepping outside his established place in society, he becomes an outcast from his own existence, divided from his home by an unbridgeable gulf.

In "Drowne's Wooden Image," a modest Boston woodcarver creates a miraculously life-like figurehead of a woman under the brief influence of divine artistic inspiration and love, only to return to ordinary craftsmanship once the living woman who inspired it departs.

"The Ambitious Guest" depicts a high-spirited young traveler who pauses at a mountain cottage, sharing his fervent desire for lasting fame with a simple family. Before his dreams can be realized, a sudden rockslide destroys both the home and its occupants, wiping away every trace of the youth's existence.

"The Great Stone Face" tells of Ernest, a humble husbandman who spends his life contemplating a giant rock formation on a cliff side, waiting for a promised hero who will match its noble countenance. After rejecting military leaders and famous men who fall short, Ernest himself grows into the very wisdom and grace he sought, ultimately fulfilling the prophecy without knowing it. Finally, "The Gray Champion" portrays a legendary Puritan patriarch who emerges from the shadows of history to stand against royal tyranny in colonial Boston.

How It Unfolds

Youth briefly regained Dr. Heidegger invites four elderly, ruined acquaintances to drink a magical water that restores their physical vigor. Instead of displaying newfound wisdom, the four immediately fall into the same vain habits and frivolous rivalries that ruined their early years.

The fatal correction Aylmer grows consumed by a crimson, hand-shaped birthmark on his wife Georgiana's cheek, viewing it as a symbol of mortality. He isolates her in his laboratory and administers a powerful draught that removes the mark but kills her in the process.

The unpardonable discovery Ethan Brand returns to his old lime-kiln, announcing to the local furnace worker that his long search across the earth for the Unpardonable Sin has ended in his own soul. Overwhelmed by his cold intellect and moral ruin, he leaps into the burning kiln.

The self-made exile A quiet man named Wakefield tells his wife he is taking a short journey, but secretly rents an apartment on the neighboring street. He stays hidden there for two decades, watching his wife age and mourn, until he is effectively erased from his own life.

An inspired creation Carver Drowne carves a remarkably lifelike figurehead of a young woman, sparking rumors of dark magic among the Puritan townsfolk. The image mirrors a real foreign lady staying in Boston, whose departure leaves Drowne a simple craftsman once more.

A brief, ruined dream A ambitious young traveler stops at a quiet mountain home, sharing his deep longing to build a monument of lasting fame before he dies. Moments later, a catastrophic avalanche sweeps down the mountain, swallowing the entire household and leaving no record of the guest.

The patient observer Ernest grows old in a mountain valley, continually watching a natural stone profile and waiting for a great man who resembles its peaceful majesty. Though generals and celebrities fail to match the image, Ernest's own lifelong devotion turns him into the very man he awaited.

The shadowy protector When oppressive British governors march troops into Boston to intimidate the colonists, an mysterious, venerable old Puritan steps forward to halt their advance. The figure vanishes into the crowd, leaving a timeless pledge that New England will always resist tyranny.

The People

• Aylmer longs for absolute scientific control over nature and human imperfection. His obsessive intellect cannot tolerate the tiny crimson birthmark on his wife's face, driving him to perform a fatal experiment that destroys the woman he loves.
• Georgiana desires only her husband's complete love and devotion. Hurt by his repulsion toward her birthmark, she willingly surrenders her safety and drinks his dangerous potion, choosing death over a life where she falls short of his ideal.
• Ethan Brand spent decades seeking the Unpardonable Sin, driven by cold intellectual curiosity. His relentless search leads him to sacrifice human sympathy and corrupt others, leaving him spiritually hollow and doomed to self-destruction in a lime-kiln.
• Wakefield is a man of sluggish, sulky temperament who wants to test his wife's devotion by vanishing briefly. His stubborn passivity traps him in a nearby apartment for twenty years, turning him into a phantom detached from his own home.
• Ernest is a gentle, simple husbandman who spends his life yearning for the fulfillment of a local prophecy. By constantly reflecting on the noble, benign features of the Great Stone Face, he unknowingly embodies the very wisdom and love he sought in others.

In Its Own Voice

"The liquor, if it really possessed such virtues as Dr. Heidegger imputed to it, could not have been bestowed on four human beings who needed it more wofully."

This observation captures the bleak state of the four elderly guests before they drink the water of youth.

"There was a healthful suffusion on their cheeks, instead of the ashen hue that had made them look so corpse-like."

Hawthorne describes the physical transformation as the magical liquid temporarily reverses the marks of age on the party.

"The new system being now established, a retrograde movement to the old would be almost as difficult as the step that placed him in his unparalleled position."

The narrator explains how Wakefield's silly, impulse decision to abandon his home quickly turns into an inescapable trap.

What It's Really About

Beneath their allegorical setups, these stories examine the perils of human pride and the danger of separating oneself from the shared human condition. Hawthorne repeatedly warns against the cold, analytical intellect that treats other people as subjects for research or objects to be perfected. Whether through Aylmer's scientific hubris or Ethan Brand's search for sin, the insistence on absolute perfection destroys the delicate balance of mortal life. Similarly, stories like "Wakefield" warn against emotional detachment, showing how easily an individual can forfeit their place in the world through mere passivity. Ultimately, the book argues that true greatness and grace come not from dominance or ambition, but from humble alignment with nature and heartfelt connection to others.

Why Read It Today

This collection serves as an exceptional entry point into 19th-century American gothic literature, offering psychological depth without dense narrative bloat. Readers who enjoy moral dilemmas, atmospheric settings, and cautionary tales will find Hawthorne's prose remarkably atmospheric. His writing carries a quiet, measured cadence that builds tension through internal conflict rather than explosive action.

While the tales are brief and accessible, modern readers should be prepared for archaic vocabulary, deliberate pacing, and formal 19th-century sentence structures. Hawthorne does not rely on modern, fast-paced dialogue; instead, his power lies in expansive narrative commentary and vivid symbolic imagery. The Puritan settings and moral allegories reflect period attitudes toward sin, duty, and fate, but the underlying psychological insights remain sharp. The haunting picture of a man who destroys what he loves in order to fix it, or the tragic vision of a life spent observing from the sidelines, will linger with you long after the final page is turned.