Mosses from an Old Manse

This collection of tales and sketches was written in part while Hawthorne lived in the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts. It opens with a charming essay on the house and its surroundings, then gathers stories that mix allegory, fantasy and moral inquiry. Among them are Young Goodman Brown, The Birth-Mark and Rappaccini's Daughter. They deal with ambition, secrecy, scientific pride and the divided human heart. The volume shows Hawthorne at the height of his short fiction and is a good place to meet his shorter work.