Nathaniel Hawthorne: Roger Malvin’s Burial

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Deal Me In 2020 – Week 43

The vow that the wounded youth had made, the blighted man had come to redeem. His sin was expiated – the curse was gone from him; and in the hour when he had shed blood dearer to him than his own, a prayer, the first for years, went up to Heaven from the lips of Reuben Bourne.

I’ve come to the end of my Nathaniel Hawthorne stories (at least the ones in the collection I have – I don’t think its complete) with “Roger Malvin’s Burial”. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while but the Deal Me In fates decided to wait until the end.

The plot is fairly simple but what gives it an edge is the conversation and depth of feeling the story begins with and continues on until the end. While Reuben Bourne is racked by guilt for not doing right by his future father-in-law, Roger Malvin, and burying him after a bloody battle, I had to feel a little sympathy for him as his father-in-law encouraged him to leave him so that they wouldn’t both die. In fact the conversation between Reuben and Roger could be the entire story and I would still consider it great.

Reuben marries the daughter of his comrade but doesn’t tell her that he didn’t pay his final respects to her father. Reuben’s guilt turns him into a difficult man unable to live in their community to the point that they leave. After years of remorse, circumstances allow Reuben to gain redemption – but not after a great price has been paid.

If you are looking for great stories about sacrifice and redemption, look no further than this one.

This story is included in The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I read it when I selected the Six of Clubs for Week 43 of my Deal Me In 2020 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In 2020 list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Egotism, or, The Bosom Serpent

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Deal Me In 2020 – Week 42

…at his bosom, he felt the sickening motion of a thing alive, and the gnawing of that restless fang which seemed to gratify at once a physical appetite and a fiendish spite.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is a master at scary stories and “Egotism, or, The Bosom Serpent” shows off that mastery. Of the stories that Hawthorne wrote that might fall into the category of horror, I think this would be at the top of the list.

Roderick Elliston roams the dark streets of his village accusing people of their wrongdoing and suddenly they feel fangs biting into their chest. Elliston himself, though, has what the story could consider the greatest wrongdoing and as a result, he doesn’t just feel the bite but has the slithery beast as a part of him.

Hawthorne’s imagery of slithery scales, green eyes, sharp fangs more than makes up for the fact that in typical early 19th century fashion, he ends the story with a moral about Elliston’s misdeeds as a result of jealousy. A true horror genre might just keep to the scary mood and monsters but don’t rule this story out just because Hawthorne makes it sort of metaphorical.

This story is included in The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I read it when I selected the Queen of Hearts for Week 42 of my Deal Me In 2020 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In 2020 list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Ambitious Guest

 

Deal Me In 2020 – Week 32

One September night, a family had gathered round their hearth, and piled it high with the driftwood of mountain streams, the dry cones of the pine, and the splintered ruins of great trees that had come crashing down the precipice. Up the chimney roared the fire, and brightened the room with its broad blaze. The faces of the father and mother had a sober gladness; the children laughed; the eldest daughter was the image of Happiness at seventeen; and the aged grandmother, who sat knitting in the warmest place, was the image of Happiness grown old.

What’s not to love about this opening paragraph and what’s not to love about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s cozy little story “The Ambitious Guest” with a fatalistic mountain backdrop?

Nothing.

Every Hawthorne story I’ve read this year seems to be my favorite Hawthorne story – until I read the next one. It’s the same with this one. I would say that this one will be difficult to top but I’ve heard really good things about “Roger Malvin’s Burial” and that one is still somewhere “on deck”.

The above mentioned cozy family gathering is set in a tavern/inn and is interrupted by a guest who is in no way pompous but in every way likable even as he discusses all of his ambitions with the family. He elaborates on the American Dream and, for better or worse, one realizes how uniquely American this type of Dream is.

Then there’s the mountain that this tavern/inn is built against – a uniquely American “mountain”.

There are lots of good Hawthorne stories to read and they all are as timely today as they were approximately 200 years ago but I highly recommend this one. It’s included in a Hawthorne collection The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories. I read it when I selected the Four of Clubs for Week 32 of my Deal Me In 2020 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In 2020 list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

Deal Me In 2020 – Week 28

When the doctor’s four guests heard him talk of his proposed experiment, they anticipated nothing more wonderful than the murder of a mouse in an air pump, or the examination of a cobweb by the microscope, or some similar nonsense, with which he was constantly in the habit of pestering his intimates.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” is a fable that explains why people in their twilight years retire to Florida. Well, OK, not really in the modern sense of this concept but maybe in an 1837 sort of way.

Dr. Heidegger gets four of his friends (three male and one female) who are getting up there in age to drink small amounts of water from the Fountain of Youth (most likely located in Florida). These friends’ passions begin to reignite the more they drink and the three men begin fighting over the one woman.

The humorous aspect of this story is the contrast between Dr. Heidegger’s detached observation and the four emotional perspectives of his subjects. As the magic water wears off, the doctor decides he doesn’t want anything to do with this potion. His four subjects run off to Florida to find more.

This story is included in The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I read it when I selected the Ace of Hearts for Week 28 of my Deal Me In 2020 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In 2020 list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Lady Eleanore’s Mantle

Deal Me In 2020 – Week 26

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Lady Eleanore’s Mantle” has a simplicity of plot that makes it fairy tale-like not to mention the titular item that seems to have magical powers. But it also has a resonance to modern times as the hooded cape is blamed for a smallpox epidemic:

There is no other fear so horrible and unhumanizing as that which makes man dread to breathe heaven’s vital air lest it be poison, or to grasp the hand of a brother or  friend lest the gripe of the pestilence should clutch him. Such was the dismay that now followed in the track of the disease, or ran before it throughout the town.

As with many of Hawthorne’s more “fantastical” stories, they maintain a depth that keeps the reader thinking – even after the story is over. And the fact that it can still ring so true after almost two centuries makes it that much more powerful.

This story is included in The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories. I read it when I selected the King of Hearts for my Deal Me In 2020 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In 2020 list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Great Carbuncle

Deal Me In 2020 – Week 22

At nightfall, once in the olden time, on the rugged side of one of the Crystal Hills, a party of adventurers were refreshing themselves, after a toilsome and fruitless quest for the Great Carbuncle.

I had to look up what a carbuncle was and all I got was “a large boil”. Since that didn’t seem to align with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Great Carbuncle”, I dug a little deeper to find that a carbuncle is also the name of any red gemstone usually a garnet. This second definition fits with Hawthorne’s story. With the use of the word “Great”, I get the idea that this red gemstone is large in size.

A band of people of different backgrounds have come together to search for the Great Carbuncle in a fashion that reminds me of Ocean’s Eleven. The odd aspect is that while they are all traveling and searching together, they each have their own idea of what they will do with the treasure once they find it. There is never any real explanation as to how the little group got together but as they stop for the night, the story shifts focus to the married couple of the bunch. They seem to be the most genuine and the least arrogant; however, they still want the stone for themselves.

Themes of selfishness show up as the story takes us to a Raiders of the Lost Ark ending. For whatever reason, this story, written well before the advent of movies, made me think of specific movies. I guess everything that is old does become new again.

This story is included in the collection The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories. I read it when I selected the Three of Clubs for week 22 of my Deal Me In 2020 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In 2020 list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

 

 

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne: My Kinsman, Major Molineux

Deal Me In 2020 – Week 20

“I say friend! will you guide me to the house of my kinsman, Major Molineux?”

Sometimes the journey is better than the destination. Sometimes the set-up is better than the punchline. This might describe Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “My Kinsman, Major Molineux”. But I don’t know if it’s a criticism of the story or if it might be the point.

The protagonist, Robin, arrives in town to find his kinsman so he can start a career of some sort. His search brings him in contact with numerous quirky characters who know of Robin’s kinsman but won’t exactly tell him where he can find him. The reader gets a feeling that Major Molineux isn’t who Robin thinks he is. Maybe the ending isn’t so much a disappointment to the reader as it is to Robin.

This is Nathaniel Hawthorne so the story is of course well-written. Is there a moral to the story as Hawthorne stories so often have? It might be a cheery nod to the Protestant Work Ethic.

This story is included in The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories. I read it when I selected the Five of Clubs for Week 20 of my Deal Me In 2020 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In 2020 list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Birthmark

Deal Me In 2020 – Week 10

…our creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own secrets, and, in spite of her pretended openness, shows us nothing but results. She permits us, indeed, to mar, but seldom to mend, and, like a jealous patentee, on no account to make.

As Nathaniel Hawthorne often does, his short story “The Birthmark” melds together the material world and the spiritual world. And also as he often does, he doesn’t bring them together in perfect harmony.

“The Birthmark” is a story in which the reader gets a feeling from the beginning of what is probably going to happen and at least this reader wasn’t surprised. But then, it’s Nathaniel Hawthorne – so the reader still wants to go with him even if they know where he’s going.

Aylmer, a brilliant scientist, is puzzled by the birthmark on his wife’s face – a face that is otherwise perfect. He concocts a potion that will take away the birthmark when his wife drinks it. Meanwhile, Aylmer’s strange assistant Aminadab looks disdainfully on like some kind of Igor.

The heavens and the earth, the flesh and the spirit become antagonists down to the bitter end when the reader can’t help but ask Aylmer “What were you thinking!” or in the words of Aminadab “If she were my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark.”

This story is included in the collection The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I read it when I selected the Jack of Hearts for Week 10 of my Deal Me In 2020 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In 2020 list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Do you have a favorite Nathaniel Hawthorne story?

 

 

 

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Maypole of Merry Mount

Deal Me In 2019 – Week 25

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Had a wanderer, bewildered in the melancholy forest, heard their mirth, and stolen a half-affrighted glance, he might have fancied them the crew of Comus, some already transformed to brutes, some midway between man and beast, and the others rioting in the flow of tipsy jollity that foreran the change. But a band of Puritans, who watched the scene, invisible themselves, compared the masques to those devils and ruined souls with whom their superstition peopled the black wilderness.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Maypole of Merry Mount” combines ancient story-telling with New World sensibilities which might describe much of Hawthorne’s work. This story has a sort of “Adam and Eve” feel with a twist.

The Lord and Lady of May celebrate their wedding around the Maypole in Merry Mount where many such celebrations occur with costumes, fanfare, and laughter. Contrast this with the Puritans spying on them. The Puritan governor chastises them for their merry-making and encourages them out of the their “Eden”. It’s interesting to try to determine whether the Puritans stand in for Satan or for God in the “Adam and Eve” story.  I go with the former as the governor seems to use persuasion with the young couple instead of the force he uses with the rest of the colony. A persuasion similarly used by the serpent in Eden. The couple leaves Merry Mount along with the joy they knew there

Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Minister’s Black Veil

Deal Me In 2019 – Week 20

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Dying sinners cried aloud for Mr. Hooper, and would not yield their breath till he appeared; though ever, as he stooped to whisper consolation, they shuddered at the veiled face so near their own. Such were the terrors of the black veil, even when Death had bared his visage! Strangers came long distances to attend service at his church, with the mere idle purpose of gazing at his figure, because it was forbidden them to behold his face. But many were made to quake ere they departed! Once, during Governor Belcher’s administration, Mr. Hooper was appointed to preach the election sermon. Covered with his black veil, he stood before the chief magistrate, the council, and the representatives, and wrought so deep an impression, that the legislative measures of that year were characterized by all the gloom and piety of our earliest ancestral sway.

The elements of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Veil” are not unfamiliar to anyone who has read much of Hawthorne’s work. It has a mysterious, sometimes even sinister, tone with a slightly didactic approach. I’m not sure, though, whether this teachy aspect is Hawthorne himself or simply the title character’s attempts to teach a lesson to his congregation and those outside his church – even if this “lesson” goes on for the rest of the minister’s life.

The Reverend Mr. Hooper appears one day at his Meeting-House wearing a black veil around his head blocking from view his face except for his mouth and chin. Just this description alone can give the reader a few chills. The reaction of Mr. Hooper’s parishioners are mixed in that some can’t look away even though they want to and others begin to think he is trying to teach an important lesson.

Nobody really knows what the minister is trying to do and Hawthorne, himself, never really gives any specifics as to what the black veil might represent. This lack of information actually helps the story steer away from being too preachy on Hawthorne’s part. It’s still fictionally preachy on the part of the preacher.

If I had to guess what the black veil means, I would say that it gives the impression of the evil that can exist in humanity both collectively and individually.  Evil that can be seen outright and evil that can be hidden. In some ways, the minister is trying to point out that humankind is “fallen” or “sinful” even if many of his congregation don’t want to see that theological concept lived out in such a vivid manner.

“The Minister’s Black Veil” is included in the Hawthorne collection The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories.  I read it when I selected the Queen of Diamonds for Week 20 of my Deal Me In 2019 short story project. My Deal Me In list can be seen here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.