This book is the first-ever selected edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's letters--169 personal letters and eight letters written while Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American consul.

Biographie remplie d'anecdotes qui éclaire l'oeuvre comme la figure de Nathaniel Hawthorne de même qu'elle fait comprendre les motivations de l'auteur, d'origine américaine, quant à son désir d'obtenir la nationalité britannique.

Readers looking for a critical vantage point from which to see Hawthorne whole—his artistic rise, triumph, and sad decline—can find it in this collection.

An indispensable source for an understanding of what Hawthorne read during more than twenty years.

His ambiguous character and non-persistent lifestyle are the source of many themes which can be retrieved from his works. Thus, understanding the man behind the stories is necessary in order to analyze the tales themselves.