The Marble Faun
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| Author | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Gothic novel |
| Publisher | Ticknor and Fields |
| Released | 1860 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| ISBN | NA |
The Marble Faun (1860) was the last of the four major romances by Nathaniel Hawthorne. After writing The Blithedale Romance in 1852, Hawthorne, approaching fifty, turned away from publication and obtained a political appointment as American Consul in Liverpool, England, an appointment which he held from 1853 to 1857. In 1858, Hawthorne and his wife Sophia Peabody moved to Italy and became essentially tourists for a year and a half.
The Marble Faun is Hawthorne's most unusual romance, and possibly one of the strangest major works of American fiction. Writing on the eve of the American Civil War, Hawthorne set his story in a fantastical Italy. The romance mixes elements of a fable, pastoral, gothic novel, and travel guide. The climax comes less than halfway through the story, and Hawthorne intentionally fails to answer many of a reader's questions about the characters and the plot. (Complaints about this led Hawthorne to add a facetious Postscript to the second edition, wherein he continues to fail - purposefully - to answer most of these questions.)
Contents |
[edit] Inspiration
In the spring of 1858, Hawthorne was inspired to write his romance when he saw the Faun of Praxiteles in a Roman sculpture gallery.
[edit] Theme
The theme, characteristic of Hawthorne, is guilt and the Fall of Man.
[edit] Characters
The four main characters are Miriam, a beautiful painter who is compared to Eve, Beatrice Cenci, Lady Macbeth, Judith, and Cleopatra, and is being pursued by a mysterious, threatening Model; Hilda, an innocent copyist who is compared to the Virgin Mary; Kenyon, a sculptor, who represents rationalist humanism; and Donatello, the Count of Monti Beni, who is compared to Adam, resembles the Faun of Praxiteles, and is probably only half human.
[edit] Influence
The Marble Faun has been cited as an influence on H. P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.[1]
[edit] Trivia
- In the documentary film Grey Gardens, Edith Bouvier Beale refers to teenage handyman Jerry Torre as "the Marble Faun" for reasons she does not explain.
- The Marble Faun is also a collection of poetry published in 1924 by William Faulkner.
[edit] References
- Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers, 145.
[edit] Notes
- ^ S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 107.
[edit] External links
- The Marble Faun — Volume 1, available at Project Gutenberg.
- The Marble Faun — Volume 2, available at Project Gutenberg.
- HTML full online text
| Nathaniel Hawthorne |
|---|
| Novels |
|
The Blithedale Romance • Doctor Grimshaw's Secret • The Dolliver Romance • Fanshawe • The House of the Seven Gables • The Marble Faun • The Scarlet Letter |
| Tales |
| Twice-Told Tales • The Gray Champion • Sundays at Home • The Wedding-Knell • The Minister's Black Veil • The May-Pole of Merry Mount • The Gentle Boy • Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe • Little Annie's Ramble • Wakefield • A Rill from the Town-Pump • The Great Carbuncle • The Prophetic Pictures • David Swan • Sights from a Steeple • The Hollow of the Three Hills • The Toll-Gatherer's Day • The Vision of the Fountain • Fancy's Show Box • Dr. Heidegger's Experiment • Legends of the Province-House • The Haunted Mind • The Village Uncle • The Ambitious Guest • The Sister Years • Snow-Flakes • The Seven Vagabonds • The White Old Maid • Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure • Chippings with a Chisel • The Shaker Bridal • Night Sketches • Endicott and the Red Cross • The Lily's Quest • Foot-prints on the Sea-shore • Edward Fane's Rosebud • The Threefold Destiny |
| The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales • The Snow-Image • The Great Stone Face • Main-street • Ethan Brand • A Bell's Biography • Sylph Etherege • The Canterbury Pilgrims • Old News • The Man of Adamant • The Devil in Manuscript • John Inglefield's Thanksgiving • Old Ticonderoga • The Wives of the Dead • Little Daffydowndilly • My Kinsman, Major Molineux |
| Mosses from an Old Manse • The Old Manse • The Birth-Mark • A Select Party • Young Goodman Brown • Rappaccini's Daughter • Mrs. Bullfrog • Fire-Worship • Buds and Bird-Voices • Monsieur du Miroir • The Hall of Fantasy • The Celestial Rail-road • The Procession of Life • Feathertop • The New Adam and Eve • Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent • The Christmas Banquet • Drowne's Wooden Image • The Intelligence Office • Roger Malvin's Burial • P.'s Correspondence • Earth's Holocaust • Passages from a Relinquished Work • Sketches from Memory • The Old Apple-Dealer • The Artist of the Beautiful • A Virtuoso's Collection |
