The grass-plot before the jail, in Prison Lane, on a certain summer morning, not less than two centuries ago, was occupied by a pretty large number of the inhabitants of Boston, all with their eyes intently fastened on the iron-clamped oaken door. Amongst any other population, or at a later period in the history of New England, the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies of these good people would have augured some awful business in hand. It could have betokened nothing short of the anticipated execution of some noted culprit, on whom the sentence of a legal tribunal had but confirmed the verdict of public sentiment. But, in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn. It might be that a sluggish bond-servant, or an undutiful child, whom his parents had given over to the civil authority, was to be corrected at the whipping-post. It might be that an Antinomian, a Quaker, or other heterodox religionist, was to be scourged out of the town, or an idle or vagrant Indian, whom the white man's firewater had made riotous about the streets, was to be driven with stripes into the shadow of the forest. It might be, too, that a witch, like old Mistress Hibbins, the bitter-tempered widow of the magistrate, was to die upon the gallows.

The Scarlet Letter

Choisies parmi les plus belles et célèbres nouvelles de N. Hawthorne, voici enfin rééditées les "contes étranges".

La grande figure de pierre et autres contes étranges

À Boston, dans la Nouvelle-Angleterre puritaine du XVIIe siècle, Hester Prynne, jeune épouse d'un vieux savant anglais dont on est maintenant sans nouvelles, a commis le péché d'adultère et refuse de révéler le nom du père de son enfant. Elle est condamné à affronter la vindicte populaire sur le pilori, avec sa fille Pearl de trois mois, puis à porter, brodée sur sa poitrine, la lettre écarlate « A ». Elle est bannie et condamnée à l'isolement. Le jour de son exhibition publique, son mari, un temps captif parmi les Indiens, la reconnait sur la place du Marché, s'introduit auprès d'elle en prison grâce à ses talents de médecin et lui fait promettre de ne pas révéler son retour. Il se jure de découvrir qui est le père afin de perdre l'âme de cet homme... Écrit en 1850, La Lettre écarlate est considéré comme le premier chef-d'oeuvre de la littérature américaine. Avec ce roman historique, Nathaniel Hawthorne a écrit un pamphlet contre le puritanisme, base de la société américaine de l'époque, à laquelle appartenaient ses ancêtres qui avaient participé à la chasse aux sorcières de 1692. Honteux de ce passé, Nathaniel Hathorne ira jusqu'à transformer l'orthographe de son nom en Hawthorne... 

Bibebook (Lien -> http://www.bibebook.com)

La Lettre écarlate

In the latter part of the last century there lived a man of science, an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy, who not long before our story opens had made experience of a spiritual affinity more attractive than any chemical one. He had left his laboratory to the care of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days when the comparatively recent discovery of electricity and other kindred mysteries of Nature seemed to open paths into the region of miracle, it was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy. The higher intellect, the imagination, the spirit, and even the heart might all find their congenial aliment in pursuits which, as some of their ardent votaries believed, would ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until the philosopher should lay his hand on the secret of creative force and perhaps make new worlds for himself.

Mosses from an Old Manse

Hawthorne a adapté à la Nouvelle-Angleterre l'évocation gothique de personnages claustrés dans un monde stagnant, dormant, recroquevillé, à l'écart de l'Histoire, dans ses particularités anachroniques. Ce recueil réunit de courtes fictions revisitant l'origine de la nation américaine.

Contes Et Récits

A superb depiction of a utopian community that cannot survive the individual passions of its members. In language that is suggestive and often erotic, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a tale of failed possibilities and multiple personal betrayals as he explores the contrasts between what his characters espouse and what they actually experience in an 'ideal' community. A theme of unrealized sexual possibilities serves as a counterpoint to the other failures at Blithedale: class and sex distinctions are not eradicated, and communal work on the farm proves personally unrewarding and economically disastrous. Based in part on Hawthorne's own experiences at Brook Farm, an experimental socialist community, The Blithedale Romance is especially timely in light of renewed interest in self-sufficient and other cooperative societies.

The blithedale romance

La lettre ecarlate

Ces petites bouffées d'irritation sont précisément ce qui donne au texte son charme - et sa vérité. Aucun adulte sain d'esprit ne peut endurer la compagnie d'un enfant débordant de vitalité sans flancher de temps à autre, et en admettant que son calme n'est pas toujours parfait, Hawthorne fait du journal quelque chose de plus qu'un album personnel de souvenirs d'un été. (Paul Auster)

Vingt Jours Avec Julian Et Petit Lapin, Selon Papa Precede De Hawthorne En Famille Par Paul Auster

L'artiste du beau

"La letra escarlata" es uno de los clásicos de la literatura norteamericana del siglo XIX, en la que Nathaniel Hawthorne narra el calvario personal de la joven Hester Prynne, acusada de adulterio y condenada por la ruda y religiosa sociedad de Nueva Inglaterra. Ella no revela la identidad del padre de su hija, y trata de vivir en una sociedad injusta con dignidad. Ésta es sin duda la obra más celebrada de Hawthorne, por su perfecta unidad del argumento dramático con la realidad histórica.

La letra escarlata

Les enfants vivent dans un monde féerique, insouciants, s'adonnant aux jeux et à la gourmandise lorsque la curiosité les attirent vers un interdit. C'est alors qu'un nuage sombre s'abat sur cet univers paradisiaque. Voici deux contes pour enfant librement inspiré de la mythologie grecque. La boite de Pandore et Le pichet magique.

La boite de Pandore

In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family's salvation, or its downfall. 

Hawthorne called The House of the Seven Gables "a Romance" and freely bestowed upon it many fascinating gothic touches. A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, the novel is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work that Henry James declared "the the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel".

The House of Seven Gables

Monsieur du miroir

Nathaniel Hawthorne, né le 4 juillet 1804 à Salem, dans le Massachusetts (États-Unis) et mort le 19 mai 1864 à Plymouth, dans le New Hampshire (États-Unis), est un écrivain américain, auteur de nouvelles et de romans.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne

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