Nathaniel Hawthorne: Unpublished Fragments, Uncensored Imagination

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Regarded as one of America's greatest novelists, Nathaniel Hawthorne is renowned for his psychologically rich explorations of guilt, sin, morality, and the darker dimensions of human nature in works such as The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Drawing on his recent book, Nathaniel Hawthorne: Parables, Fantasies, Fragments, scholar Robert S. Levine examines the little-known journal fragments Hawthorne wrote in the 1830s and 1840s. During these years, Hawthorne filled notebooks with imaginative sketches and reflections, allowing his creativity to roam freely without concern for convention or public judgment. Never published during his lifetime, these fragments contain some of his most inventive writing. Levine explores Hawthorne's early development as a writer, the later publication of the notebooks, and the fragments themselves, revealing a surprising Hawthorne: a daring literary experimenter and proto-modernist whose work remains strikingly relevant today. Levine is distinguished professor of English at the University of Maryland and the general editor of The Norton Anthology of American Literature. General Information View Common FAQs and Policies about our Online Programs on Zoom .