Henry James's acclaimed 1879 biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne is an entertaining and incisive survey of this author's life and work. James contrasts the sparse cultural landscape of nineteenth-century America with Europe's achievements and traditions, and he examines the challenges this situation posed to Hawthorne's artistic aims. He describes Hawthorne's literary journey from obscurity to recognition, evaluating his novels and praising his sketches and tales. Sometimes critical of its subject, but always engaging and sympathetic, James's biography of Hawthorne is a penetrating assessment of Hawthorne and a keen commentary on American culture and civilization, with James positioning himself as part of a more cosmopolitan generation of writers. This biography tells us much about Hawthorne and his era, and about James's conception of himself as a writer and his perspective on American literary tradition.

This Warbler Classics edition includes an Introduction, a Note on the Text, Annotations, a Biographical Timeline, and Further Reading by William E. Cain.