The American Monthly Magazine Volume 5 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1838 edition. Excerpt: ...Town-Pump" is very much in this vein. A second class of Hawthorne's sketches rivals Irving himself in occasional graphic thoughts and phrases, and partakes not a little of his picturesque mode of viewing a topic. We would instance " Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," where four venerable personages, in the withered extreme of age, are transformed into as many gay, frisking creatures in " the happy prime of youth," by a draught from the famous Fountain of Youth. It struck us as a very apt companion-piece to Irving's " Mutability of Literature." " Fancy's Show.Box" has a sentence, here and there, flavored strongly with the Sketch Book humor. In the third species of writing in this volume, Hawthorne follows no model, imitates no predecessor, that we can recollect. He is himself. And these, to our mode of thinking, appear to be the gems and jewels of the work. The style is flowing, smooth, serious. The tone of the pieces, mellowed, calm, meditative. The manner of diffusing his subject, peculiar to himself, and original. The sketches and stories in which these character, istics predominate, outnumber, as might be expected, those of a different kind. - Sunday at Home," " The Wedding Knell," " The Minister's Black Veil," " The Prophetic Pictures," " Sights from a Steeple," are as fine essays of their kind as may be found in the English language. In fact, we scarcely know where to look for productions with which to compare them. Many have written pathetic and mournful stories, many have indulged in a tender, moralizing sorrow, as they looked upon the world and humanity: this many have accomplished admirably--Addison, Mackenzie, Lamb, and others. But nowhere do you find the new strain in which Hawthorne so eloquently pours forth his individual feelings....