The Shattered Fountain: Selected Tales

Through 10 of Nathaniel Hawthorne's best short stories, The Shattered Fountain: Selected Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne celebrates the distinguished American novelist's creative genius and spiritual impact. Hawthorne, a leading figure in the American Romance movement, rejects many of his contemporaries' vacuous optimism in the human spirit and affairs. Instead, as these stories demonstrate, Hawthorne polished his skill in order to portray the reality that the human heart is capable of great good as well as unimaginable evil. These ten tales from the pen of an American genius, awash in equal parts madness, sorrow, and beauty, hauntingly reveal the shape and sense of our world in all its shattered, still-sparkling brilliance.