The Life and Genius of Nathaniel HawthorneStearns, Frank Preston
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The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stearns, Frank Preston
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864; Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
Hawthorne wished for a quiet, healthful place, where he could write his
romance without the disturbances that are incident to celebrity, and his
friends recommended Redcar, on the eastern coast of Yorkshire, a town
that otherwise Americans would not have heard of. He went there about
the middle of July, remaining until the 5th of October, but of his life
there we know nothing except that he must have worked assiduously, for
in that space of time he nearly finished a book containing almost
twice as many pages as “The Scarlet Letter.” Meanwhile Mrs. Hawthorne
entertained the children and kept them from interfering with their
father (in his small cottage), by making a collection of sea-mosses,
which Una and Julian gathered at low tides, and which their mother
afterward dried and preserved on paper. On October 4th Una Hawthorne
wrote to her aunt, Elizabeth Peabody:
“Our last day in Redcar, and a most lovely one it is. The sea seems to
reproach us for leaving it. But I am glad we are going, for I feel
so homesick that I want constant change to divert my thoughts. How
troublesome feelings and affections are.”
[Footnote: Mrs. Lathrop, 35 a.]
One can see that it was a pleasant place even after the days had begun
to shorten, which they do very rapidly in northern England. From Redcar,
Hawthorne went to Leamington, where he finished his romance about the
first of December, and remained until some time in March, living quietly
and making occasional pedestrian tours to neighboring towns. He was
particularly fond of the walk to Warwick Castle, and of standing on the
bridge which crosses the Avon, and gazing at the walls of the Castle, as
they rise above the trees--“as fine a piece of English scenery as exists
anywhere; the gray towers and long line of windows of the lordly castle,
with a picturesquely varied outline; ancient strength, a little softened
by decay.” It is a view that has often been sketched, painted and
engraved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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