Posthumous Rating of Hawthorne and “Young Goodman Brown” :: Young Goodman Brown YGB

Posthumous Rating of Hawthorne and Young Goodman Brown This essay intends to construct the main literary criticism of the former, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Young Goodman Brownsince the authors death in 1864. Nathaniel Hawthornes acclamation as a great writer by both critics and the general public was not an overnight occurrence. The Norton Anthology American Literature states that he was agonizingly slow in winning acclaim (547). Initially, of course, Nathaniel Hawthornes literary works went unranked among those of other American and British writers. But his reputation grew gradually even among contemporary critics, until he was recognized as a man of genius. The question in this essay is this How does he and Young Goodman Brown fare since 1864 when Hawthorne died. The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote a poem commemorating Hawthorne for the funeral in 1864 . . . . There in seclusion and remote from men The wizard hand lies cold, Which at its topmost speed let fall th e pen, And left the tale half told. Ah who shall lift that nightstick of magic power, And the lost clew regain? The unfinished windows in Aladdins tower Unfinished must remain In 1871 James T. Fields published Yesterdays With Authors, in which Chapter 3 deals with his evaluation of Nathaniel Hawthorne I AM sitting to-day opposite the likeness of the rarest genius America has given to literature,--a man who lately sojourned in this busy demesne of ours, but during many years of his life Wandered lonely as a cloud,-- a man who had, so to speak, a physical affinity with solitude. The writings of this author have never soiled the public mind with one unlovely image. His men and women have a magic of their own, and we shall wait a long sentence before another arises among us to take his place. Indeed, it seems probable no one will ever walk precisely the same round of fiction which he traversed with so free and firm a step. What lovely thoughts What a tribute to Hawthornes genius The very next year Henry James wrote a review of Hawthorne for the Nation Our remarks are not provoked by any visible detriment conferred on Mr. Hawthornes fame by these recent publications. . .His journals throw but undersized light on his personal feelings, and even less on his genius per se.