Résumé
Résumé de Idolâtrie
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love atmospheric Victorian fiction, strong passions and old secrets, and anyone interested in the Hawthorne family's place in American letters.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Idolatry is a romance by Julian Hawthorne, the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It appeared in the 1870s, when American and British readers still loved the Gothic mode, with its old secrets, intense feelings and shadowed settings. The book belongs to a family of stories where love and danger sit very close together.
In this summary you will hear what kind of book this is and what readers of such books meet. We look at how Gothic romance treats obsession, how it uses the past and its mysteries, and how to read a Victorian tale like this one today. Let us begin with the tradition behind it.
Dans ce résumé
- 1It grows from the Gothic romance traditionFree
- 2Obsession is the engine of the genre
- 3The past casts a long shadow
- 4How to read it today
Point clé 1 sur 4
It grows from the Gothic romance tradition
Gothic romance began in the late eighteenth century with tales of haunted houses, hidden rooms and troubled hearts. Writers such as Ann Radcliffe and later Edgar Allan Poe shaped what readers expected. The setting is often old and strange, and the mood is one of unease.
In America the form took its own colour. Nathaniel Hawthorne used it to ask about guilt, secrecy and the weight of inherited sin, and he called many of his longer stories romances rather than novels. A romance, in his sense, was free to bend reality a little in order to show the heart more clearly.
Julian Hawthorne grew up inside that tradition. When he wrote Idolatry, he wrote as the heir of a famous literary name, yet with his own taste for strong feeling and bold effects. Knowing this background helps you see what the book is trying to do before you read a single page.
That’s 1 of 4 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Idolâtrie
Who was Julian Hawthorne?
Julian Hawthorne was an American author and journalist, the son of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. He wrote many novels and stories, along with essays and a biography of his parents, and he died in 1934.
What is a Gothic romance?
A Gothic romance is a story of strong feeling and mystery, often set among old houses or hidden histories. It aims to create unease and suspense while following love, fear and the pull of the past.
What does the title Idolatry mean?
Idolatry means giving worship or devotion to something that does not deserve it. In a romance, the word suggests love or desire that grows so strong that it becomes a kind of worship.
When was Idolatry written?
Idolatry is a work of fiction from the 1870s, written by Julian Hawthorne. It is an invented romance in the Gothic style, not a true story.
Is Idolatry hard to read?
Readers who enjoy atmospheric older fiction usually find it easy to settle into after a few pages.