Liberal Arts Blog — Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) — The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of The Seven Gables (1851), The Marble Faun (1860)
Liberal Arts Blog — Tuesday is the Joy of Literature, Language, Religion, and Culture Day
Today’s Topic: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) — The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Marble Faun (1860)
Last time, I noted that Herman Melville (1819–1891) dedicated “Moby Dick” to Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Why? Well, to me they are both philosophical novelists, latter-day Puritan preachers constantly musing on the meaning of life, of good and evil. Are you a fan of either? Favorite book, character, line? If not, is there another philosophical novelist that is more to your liking? If not, what kind of novel is more your cup of tea? Favorite passage?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES (1851) — the house of the seven deadly sins of the past generations of the Pyncheon family, evoking for me, the opening line of “The 18th Brumaire” of Karl Marx, “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”
1. “What other dungeon is as dark as one’s own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one’s self!”
2. “Life is made of marble and of mud.”
3. “Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst.”
NB. “The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.”
THE SCARLET LETTER — “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.”
1. “It contributes greatly towards a man’s moral and intellectual health to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.”
2. “Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart.”
3. “Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.”
NB: “It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge, each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his object.”
THE MARBLE FAUN (1860) — below the “Resting Satyr” of Praxiteles, the basis for the character Donatello (that is the Marble Faun)
1. “Romance and poetry, ivy, lichens and wallflowers need ruin to make them grow.”
2. “ Christian faith is a grand cathedral, with divinely pictured windows. Standing without, you see no glory, nor can possibly imagine any; standing within, every ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeakable splendors.”
3. “Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed.”
RANDOM BIOGRAPHICAL TIDBITS — from the auspicious birth in Salem to the Utopian community at Brook Farm to the “Old Manse” and the “Wayside” in Concord to Liverpool and back to Concord
1. Born on July 4,1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, famous for the witch trials of 1692 and 1693.
2. Lived for about six months in the utopian, transcendentalist community of Brook Farm in 1841.
3. With his new wife, Sophia Peabody, rented the “Old Manse” in Concord from Ralph Waldo Emerson from 1842–1845. And then purchased “Hillside” from the Alcotts in 1852. He renamed the house the “Wayside.” Please come to Concord and check out all the historical landmarks!
NB: In 1853 appointed consul in Liverpool when his Bowdoin College buddy Franklin Pierce was elected President of the United States. Hawthorne had previously written a campaign biography for his chum. He returned from touring Europe in 1860 and died four years later.
Nathaniel Hawthorne — Wikiquote
Nathaniel Hawthorne — Wikipedia
Salem witch trials — Wikipedia
The Scarlet Letter — Wikipedia
House of the Seven Gables — Wikipedia
The House of the Seven Gables — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH — Have you made your own Bible yet?
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY INTO FOURTEEN BOOK-LENGTH PDFS:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to words, language, literature, religion, culture.
Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to Words, Language, Literature (eg. quotes, poetry, vocabulary) that you have not yet shared.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
