Hawthorne's American Travel Sketches

Description

These four essays framing Hawthorne's 12 slight, rarely published sketches of his 1832 tour of New England and upstate New York show him acceding to, but often satirizing, conventions of 19th-century American travel literature and popular landscape painting. Meant to be part of an early novel, The Story Teller, his sketches represent Hawthorne's attempt to get in touch with his region in time of dislocating change, from pastoral to industrial. The essays by Alfred Weber, Beth L. Lueck, and Dennis Berthold, however, are more interesting and thought-provoking than Hawthorne's essays. This book will be a valuable addition to libraries specializing in 19th-century American literature and popular art. ( on line review)