Nathaniel Hawthorne 
Twice-Told Tales [EPUB ebook] 

This is the annotated edition including both volumes of the original book, a rare and extensive biographical essay on the author, as well as an essay by Edgar Allan Poe on Hawthorne’s tale-writing.
Hawthorne’s early stories were collected in 1837 and published under the title ‘Twice-Told Tales.’ They include two of the stories founded on early New England annals, — ‘The Gray Champion, ‘ based on a tradition of one of the judges of Charles I., and ‘The Maypole of Merry-Mount, ‘ in which Endicott appears as the embodiment of the Puritan spirit. Besides these are the allegories ‘Fancy’s Show Box, ‘ ‘The Great Carbuncle, ‘ and ‘ The Prophetic Pictures ; ‘ ‘The Hollow of the Three Hills, ‘ one of the typical stories of witchcraft, foreshadowing some of his later and more powerful work; the curious study, ‘Wakefield’, the popular ‘Rill from the Town Pump ;’ the pretty’ fantasy, ‘ David Swan, ‘ in which the lighthearted boy goes on his pilgrimage unconscious of the shadows of possibilities that have fallen across his sleeping face; the pathetic story of Quaker suffering, ‘The Gentle Boy ; ‘ ‘ Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, ‘ -‘ touching a subject which recurs again in ‘ Septimius Felton ‘ and ‘ The Dolliver Romance ;’ and the light humor of ‘Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe, -‘ — thus including almost every class of subject on which he afterward touched, though in all he rose to higher levels in his later work. ‘