Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Study of the Short Fiction. - book reviews

The dust-jacket blurb promises far more than this book delivers - "Nancy Bunge investigates the whole of Hawthorne's short fiction canon, including a number of the less celebrated stories." Bunge's prefatory statement that she focused on 31 of Hawthorne's tales corrects the publisher's hype. Her wish that she could have written about Hawthorne's other 66 tales and sketches betrays a frustration that everyone who must conform to an existing series format must feel.

Within the harness of the format, Bunge lacked the space and freedom that Lea Newman enjoyed in A Reader's Guide to the Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Bunge's purpose differs essentially from Newman's in her virtual elimination of what scholars and critics have written about the tales and her concentration, instead, on providing a close reading of most of Hawthorne's major pieces of short fiction and a few of his lesser-known ones.

Her study, like others in the series, breaks down into three parts: Part 1 offers her reading of 31 tales; Part 2 contains complete passages or excerpts from Hawthorne's journals, letters, and prefaces that shed light on his ideas and practices as a writer; Part 3 gives snippets from the essays of selected critics, among them Melville, Poe, James, Nina Baym, and Gloria Ehrlich.

Bunge arranges the tales discussed under three main groups: "isolation and community," "artists and scientists," "perspective, humility, and joy." Her first group opens with a sensitive, insightful reading of "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" and continues with "Young Goodman Brown," "Roger Malvin's Burial," "Lady Eleanore's Mantle," "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Man of Adamant," "Egotism; or, the Bosom Serpent," "Earth's Holocaust," and "The Ambitious Guest." Interweaving one tale with another as she proceeds, Bunge centers her discussion on theme, character, and structural elements.

The second grouping contains "The Birthmark," "Ethan Brand," "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," "The Artist of the Beautiful," "Wakefield," "The Prophetic Pictures," "Chippings with a Chisel," "Drowne's Wooden Image," and "The Snow Image." Bunge's points of emphasis remain the same as in Part 1. Experienced readers of Hawthorne will be more inclined to argue with her here than in the other two parts, especially with her decision to follow the critical tradition that finds Owen Warland's achievement trivial because he wrought a mechanical toy. A few veteran readers will be unhappy that Bunge glosses over this tale's ambiguities as well as those of "The Prophetic Pictures," for long-time readers know that Hawthorne rarely permits them to come down on one side alone in any issue or aesthetic question. Within this group, Bunge will awaken interest in the oft-ignored "Chippings with a Chisel." A concern throughout this section is the narrator's role, and here that concern pays ample dividends, for the narrator becomes, under Bunge's scrutiny, one of Hawthorne's more interesting characters, a kinsman of the unnamed artist of "The Prophetic Pictures" - but ultimately more complex than he.

The third group, though a catch-all at first glance, has ties to the first two in that Hawthorne everywhere suggests that "everyone has a limited understanding of the truth." It assumes something of an integrity because "the issue of perspective rests at the center of all Hawthorne's tales." How one looks at life largely determines whether humility or joy will be major factors in it. Discussed in this group are "The Hall of Fantasy," "Old News," "The Celestial Rail-road," "Sights from a Steeple," "Sylph Etherege," "Rappaccini's Daughter," "The Maypole of Merry Mount," "The Great Carbuncle," "The Great Stone Face," and "The Haunted Mind." Placed in the context of other stories exploring varying outlooks on life, "Rappaccini's Daughter" yields more satisfactory results than it would have if Bunge had grouped it with Hawthorne's tales of artists and scientists, for the tale grapples with multiple questions on how humans should view life and one another.

As a companion to Hawthorne studies for undergraduates and for teachers looking for an intelligent reading to compare and contrast with their own, Bunge's book will be welcome. Experienced Hawthorne readers will find Parts 2 and 3 of slight value, and some of them might insist that Bunge could have better used her space by reprinting more of Hawthorne's germs for his tales. Veteran Hawthorne scholars will instantly see that, despite the heavy harness imposed upon her by the format, Bunge amply deserves the spurs she has won in helping yet another generation of readers fathom and enjoy Hawthorne's most masterful achievement, his short fiction.

JOHN L. IDOL, JR. Clemson University

COPYRIGHT 1994 Studies in Short Fiction
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