Nathaniel Hawthorne

Close and Not-So-Close Encounters With Famous Authors

Dave Astor | Posted 05.23.2012

Read More: Barbara Kingsolver, Ernest Hemingway, National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Leo Tolstoy, Herman Melville, France, Cartoonists, Isaac Asimov, Novels, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, Paul Cezanne, Mark Twain, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, John Updike, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles M. Schulz, Books News
Dave Astor

Literature fans love "encounters" with living or dead authors. These might involve seeing novelists at book signings, listening to them give a talk, or visiting homes/museums connected with famous authors of the past.

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Serious Novelists Are Sometimes Surprisingly Funny

Dave Astor | Posted 03.06.2012

Read More: John Steinbeck, Jane Austen, Terry McMillan, Humor in Novels, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Philip Roth, Books News
Dave Astor

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is an epic tragedy that leaves readers shocked and awed. But, along the way, there are some delightfully funny interludes -- most notably the pre-voyage scene in which Ishmael and Queequeg end up in the same bedroom.

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Bethlehem, 'Perfection' and Our Birthmark: Why Perfect Is the Enemy of Good!

David Katz, M.D. | Posted 02.24.2012

Read More: Healthy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Breast Augmentation, Autoimmune Disease, Health, Dr. David Katz, Breast Implants, Jesus, Christmas, Cosmetic Surgery, New Year, Women Beauty Standards, Standards for Beauty, Perfect Body, Female Bauty, Consciousness, Perfect Beauty, The Perfect Beauty, Standards of Beauty, Beauty Standards, Body Image, Healthy Living News
David Katz, M.D.

As a new year looms, we might consider abandoning the quest for superficial perfection -- and embrace the pursuit of humbler, but deeper good. The particular advantage of good over perfect is... We could actually get there from here.

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Is Nathaniel Hawthorne More Relevant Than Ever?

Big Think | Posted 11.30.2011

Read More: Literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lisa New, Financial Crisis, Big Think, Economic Crisis, Classic Books, Fifty News

How can Americans think their way out of the current economic crisis? According to Lisa New, professor of English at Harvard University, Americans oug...

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A Dearth of Mirth at the End of Many Great Novels

Dave Astor | Posted 12.11.2011

Read More: Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Unhappy Endings, Wilkie Collins, Classic Novels, The House of Mirth, George Orwell, Novels, Nathaniel Hawthorne, J.R.R. Tolkien, Aldous Huxley, Herman Melville, Charlotte Bronte, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Books News
Dave Astor

After just finishing The House of Mirth, I'm reminded once again that many great novels don't have happy endings.

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The Pleasures of Rereading

Dave Astor | Posted 11.19.2011

Read More: J.K. Rowling, John Steinbeck, Baseball, L.M. Montgomery, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Zora Neale Hurston, Rereading Books, Herman Melville, Charlotte Bronte, Rereading Novels, Alfred Payson Terhune, Alexandre Dumas, J.R.R. Tolkien, Marseille, Morality, Harry Potter, Mark Twain, Nostalgia, Dogs, Books News
Dave Astor

Reading a beloved book twice, thrice, or more is a craving that can't be denied. It's pleasurable, comforting, and relaxing -- partly because you don't have to figure out what the author is doing from scratch.

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The Best Two Half-Decades in Literary History

Dave Astor | Posted 10.08.2011

Read More: Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Anne Bronte, William Thackeray, Classic Novels, Emily Bronte, L.M. Montgomery, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Theodore Dreiser, Herman Melville, Honore De Balzac, Charlotte Bronte, Five Year Plan, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Great Authors, Alexandre Dumas, Willa Cather, Thornton Wilder, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Books News
Dave Astor

They were unplanned "Five-Year Plans" for the ages: the amazing proliferation of classic novels published from 1846 to 1851 and from 1922 to 1927. And, believe it or not, one author had a book in both those periods!

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PHOTOS: 8 Things You Probably Don't Know About Famous Authors

Dave Astor | Posted 08.30.2011

Read More: Alexandre Dumas, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, Famous Authors, Slidepollajax, John Steinbeck, Famous Author Facts, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Video, Books News
Dave Astor

Curiosity about great novelists has inspired me to read dozens of author biographies. In those books (and on the Web), one can discover many "wow"-inducing facts about renowned writers

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Less Famous Literary Masterpieces

Dave Astor | Posted 08.10.2011

Read More: J.K. Rowling, Barbara Kingsolver, John Steinbeck, Jane Austen, L.M. Montgomery, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Canada, Herman Melville, Charlotte Bronte, Toni Morrison, Erich Maria Remarque, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, Walter Scott, Harry Potter, Willa Cather, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Books News
Dave Astor

There are plenty of cases where an author's masterpiece deserves the top billing it gets in the author's canon. But then there are the cases where a writer's most famous book is not the writer's best book.

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Collecting Hawthorne: (Not) Only a Woman's Hair

Carolyn Vega | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Journals, Museum, Diaries, The Scarlet Letter, New York News
Carolyn Vega

When J.P. Morgan purchased part of Wakeman's library in 1909, he acquired,"the greatest body in existence of the writings of perhaps the greatest of all American authors" -- that is, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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The Droll Insight Of Trollope

Richard C. Morais | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Barchester Chronicles, Henry James, Brooklyn, Buddhaland Brooklyn, Anthony Trollope, Books News
Richard C. Morais

To be so amused and enlightened by the political machinations of the Barchester clergy is priceless. But to do so for the price of a Taco Bell burrito makes this Kindle offer one of the best bargains around.

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Lindsay, Madonna, Emma and the Search for Control

Jessica Massa | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Women, Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan, Entertainment, Women's Issues, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lindsay Lohan Jail, Madonna, Lady GaGa, The Town, Millennial Generation, Rosanna Arquette, Emma Stone, Heidi Montag, Desperately-Seeking-Susan, Female Empowerment, Easy A, Celebrities, Entertainment News
Jessica Massa

What an eventful 24 hours! At least for me. Last night, I attended the 25th Anniversary screening of the iconic 80's film Desperately Seeking Susan ...

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HuffPost Review: Easy A

Marshall Fine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Easy a Movie Review, Amanda Bynes, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gossip Girl, Lisa Kudrow, Marshall Fine Movie Review, Emma Stone, Ally Michalka, Thomas Haden Church, Entertainment News
Marshall Fine

Emma Stone is a bright young actress who knows her way around a one-liner. But the flimsy writing here barely evokes giggles, let alone actual laughs.

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Curious about 'The Whale?' Read the Book

Peter Christian Hall | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: John Waters, Moby Dick, Shamu Show, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Whale, Dawn Brancheau, Herman Melville, Whaling, Blackstone Group, Killer Whales, SeaWorld Dolphin Death, Seaworld, Sperm Whales, Tilikum, Whale Wars, Philip Hoare, Beluga, Orca, Tilly, Books News
Peter Christian Hall

Philip Hoare pays eloquent tribute to the beauty, power, and history of the sea's mightiest creatures. Can readers who have discovered the elegance and mystery of whales ever again enjoy a seaquarium?

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No Time to Read? Go Short

Nina Sankovitch | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Edgar Allan Poe, Short Stories, Ernest Hemingway, O. Henry, Kurt Vonnegut, Reading, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Dave Eggers, Leo Tolstoy, Book Groups, Book a Day, Paul Auster, Annie Proulx, Reading All Day, Books, Christmas Carol, Kazuo Ishiguro, Books News
Nina Sankovitch

There is a solution to the time crunch: the beauty and brevity of a short story. For those with circumscribed time, short stories deliver, and deliver big time.

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