Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goethe’s Faust, including Part One and Part Two, was written over the entire course of the author’s adult … Continue reading
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole My rating: 3 of 5 stars Published pseudonymously in 1764 by an English politician, The Castle of Otranto is usually praised as the … Continue reading
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun
The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Marble Faun (1860) is Hawthorne’s last completed and longest romance—his term for the type of non-realist, symbolic, … Continue reading
Hart Crane, The Bridge
The Bridge by Hart Crane My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Bridge (1930) is a long poem seven years in the making. It was written under several varieties of … Continue reading
Herman Melville, Benito Cereno
Melville’s Short Novels: Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism by Herman Melville My rating: 5 of 5 stars Benito Cereno is one of the post-Pierre short works of the 1850s by which Melville … Continue reading
Herman Melville, Pierre; or, The Ambiguities
Pierre; or, The Ambiguities by Herman Melville My rating: 4 of 5 stars What was left of Melville’s early audience was killed off by the dreadful Pierre, a year after … Continue reading
Wallace Stevens, Harmonium
Harmonium by Wallace Stevens My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have long had an interest in Wallace Stevens but have never read him with any disciplined attention. To correct … Continue reading
Henry James, Hawthorne
Hawthorne by Henry James My rating: 5 of 5 stars This short 1879 book is Henry James’s critical biography of the man who would at the time have been considered … Continue reading
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne My rating: 5 of 5 stars Preface What is The Scarlet Letter about? Generations of confused American students want to know! This short 1850 … Continue reading
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer
Letters from an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur My rating: 5 of 5 stars It might sound odd to call such a ubiquitous text underrated, but … Continue reading
