Books: Hawthorne Revisited

HAWTHORNE'S SHORT STORIES—(422 pp.)—Edited by Newton Arvin—Knopf ($3).

It has been 80-odd years since Nathaniel Hawthorne died, but the mystery of his life has never been completely explained. One biographer, Newton Arvin (Hawthorne, 1929), has now selected 29 Hawthorne short stories for this new edition, the majority from Twice-Told Tales and Mosses from an Old Manse. Most of the old Hawthorne favorites are here: Peter Goldthwaite and his hidden treasure, Dr. Rappaccini and his deadly daughter, Ethan Brand and his fiery furnace, the Great Carbuncle shining with its "awful blaze."

Over the years,...