17 h 43 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 17 h 43 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Where does evil live—in the dark forest, the strange garden, or the human heart?
Nathaniel Hawthorne opens Mosses from an Old Manse at a quiet house beside the Concord River, then leads you into tales of mystery and moral doubt. In Young Goodman Brown, a newly married Puritan leaves his wife, Faith, for a mysterious errand in the forest. His trust is at stake, and even Faith's name carries more than one meaning.
In The Birth-Mark, Aylmer loves Georgiana but cannot accept the small crimson mark on her cheek. In Rappaccini's Daughter, Giovanni Guasconti watches a strange garden and falls for Beatrice, who longs for human company. Around these unsettling stories, Hawthorne gathers satires, allegories, and sketches. Fear meets wit, and questions about love, guilt, and human flaws resist easy answers.
What you’ll discover
- A house beside the river Enter The Old Manse through Hawthorne's opening essay about the house where he lives.
- Faith beneath the pink ribbons Follow Young Goodman Brown into a forest where his trust faces a troubling test.
- Love troubled by a mark Meet a scientist whose longing to remove his wife's birthmark unsettles his love.
- A garden of dangerous plants Discover Beatrice Rappaccini's longing for company among the strange plants her father grows.
- Wit with a moral edge Find comic satire in The Celestial Railroad and lingering guilt in Roger Malvin's Burial.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, strange stories with a moral edge, and anyone curious about early American writing and the Puritan past. These tales bring together mystery, guilt, wit and the limits of science.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Quiet House Holds Many Ghosts
- A Good Man Walks Into the Forest
- Science and Love Fail to Mix
- Progress Gets a Gentle Roasting
- Secret Guilt Eats at the Heart
- How Hawthorne Tells His Tales
Who’s who
- Young Goodman BrownA young Puritan of Salem village who leaves his new wife one night for a mysterious errand in the forest and finds his trust tested.
- FaithBrown's young wife, who wears pink ribbons and asks him not to leave her alone that night.
- AylmerA brilliant scientist who loves his wife yet cannot rest while a small mark mars her cheek.
- GeorgianaAylmer's wife, who bears a hand-shaped birthmark and agrees to let her husband try to remove it.
- Giovanni GuascontiA young student in Padua who watches a strange garden from his window and falls in love with the woman who tends it.
- Beatrice RappacciniThe beautiful daughter of a scientist, who lives among her father's strange plants and longs for human company.
- Doctor RappacciniA learned physician of Padua who grows rare and dangerous plants and guards his daughter closely.
- Reuben BourneA young frontiersman who makes a promise to a dying companion and cannot forget it.
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 17 h 43 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 5 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Moose aus dem Alten Pfarrhaus
by Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1846
Goodman Brown leaves his young wife for a mysterious errand in the forest, where his trust is tested.
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In short
Some books grow like moss on old stone, slowly and in the quiet. Mosses from an Old Manse is a collection of tales and sketches by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1846.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Quiet House Holds Many Ghosts
The book opens with The Old Manse, an essay about the house where Hawthorne lived for three years. It stands beside the Concord River, close to the site of a bridge where Americans and British troops fought. Hawthorne describes the place with affection and a dry sense of humor.
He writes of the orchard, the river and the garden he plants. He imagines the old ministers who lived in the house, and he finds their sermons in the attic, dusty and dull. Out of such small details comes a gentle mood, half real and half dreamy.
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What is Mosses from an Old Manse about?
It is a collection of tales and sketches by Hawthorne. They deal with guilt, doubt, pride and the limits of science and progress. The book opens with an essay about the Concord house where he lived and wrote.
What is the Old Manse in the title?
It is a parsonage in Concord, Massachusetts, built by a clergyman. Hawthorne lived there for three years, and many of the tales were written during his stay.
Which stories are in Mosses from an Old Manse?
The best known are Young Goodman Brown, The Birth-Mark and Rappaccini's Daughter. It also includes The Celestial Railroad, Earth's Holocaust, Feathertop, Roger Malvin's Burial, Egotism, and many shorter sketches.
The author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
1804–1864 · American novelist
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short-story writer born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. He lived in Massachusetts and served as a United States consul in Liverpool, England. He wrote The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). He died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, in 1864.
More by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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