Fanshawe

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Publisher: CLXBX

Summary

Fanshawe is Nathaniel Hawthorne's first novel, a youthful yet compelling work that offers early insight into the themes and moral concerns that would later define one of America's greatest writers. Published anonymously in 1828, the novel blends romance, mystery, and psychological tension, revealing Hawthorne's early fascination with identity, obsession, and the emotional consequences of unfulfilled desire.

Set against the backdrop of a New England college town, the story centers on two contrasting young men—Fanshawe, a reclusive and intellectually gifted scholar weakened by illness, and Edward Walcott, a passionate and impulsive suitor. Both are drawn to the same woman, Ellen Langton, whose affection becomes the emotional center of the narrative. As love, jealousy, and secrecy intertwine, the novel explores the conflict between intellect and passion, reason and impulse.

Though Hawthorne later dismissed Fanshawe as an immature effort, the novel contains many elements that foreshadow his mature work. Its brooding atmosphere, moral introspection, and focus on inner conflict anticipate themes later perfected in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne's emerging talent for psychological depth and symbolic storytelling is already evident in this early romance.

Fanshawe also reflects the literary traditions of its time, drawing inspiration from Gothic and Romantic fiction while grounding its story in distinctly American settings and concerns. The result is a novel that, while modest in scope, offers valuable insight into Hawthorne's artistic development and early creative vision.

Today, Fanshawe is read not only as a romantic tale of love and rivalry but also as an important piece of literary history. It provides readers, scholars, and fans of classic American literature with a rare opportunity to witness the beginnings of Nathaniel Hawthorne's enduring legacy.

Available since: 02/06/2026.

Print length: 147 pages.

Contemporary Fiction

Other books that might interest you

Hogg

Samuel R. Delany

The narrator of Hogg is a Huck Finn–like youngster caught in society’s most sinister seams—but unlike Huck, he passes no moral judgments on the violence he takes part in . . .Hogg is the story of a man—a depraved trucker named Franklin Hargus, whom the people he works for call Hogg—and of the nameless boy who tells the story of three days of unspeakable sexual violence and devastation, which, together, they initiate in a small seaside American city in the middle of the last century. Hogg is a towering brute who makes his living as a rapist for hire. By the end of a series of vicious attacks, kidnappings, and mass murders, the reader will wonder who is more corrupt: the man or the boy.   Samuel R. Delany completed his first draft of Hogg within a day, if not within hours, of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City and revised it over the next four years, though it was not released until 1995.

Show book

Tender Betrayal

Rosanne Bittner

Stolen kisses and secret reunions lead to a passion that civil war cannot sever in this glorious historical romance from the bestselling author of Caress.   Beautiful, proud Audra Brennan feels like a stranger in a foreign land when she comes north from Louisiana to study music. But when she savors her first forbidden taste of desire in the arms of handsome lawyer Lee Jeffreys, his caresses spark a flame within her that burns away the differences between rebel and Yankee, all objections silenced by the fierce beating of two wild hearts falling impetuously, impossibly in love.   Suddenly cannon fire shatters the country. Principled, impassioned, and committed to a nation united, Lee answers the call to fight against the Confederacy, while Audra hurries home to a plantation shadowed by the darkening cloud of war. But in the most terrible of circumstances, can either afford to surrender their heart?   “Power, passion, tragedy and triumph are Rosanne Bittner’s hallmarks. Again and again, she brings readers to tears.” —RT Book Reviews

Show book

One Night Stand With My Boss 2 -...

Ela Osaretin

Alcohol and heartbreak are definitely not a good combo.Too bad I learnt that a little too late. I’m Tessa Beckett and I painfully got dumped by my boyfriend of three years.That led me to getting drunk at a bar and having a one-night stand with a stranger.Before he would see me as a slut the next day,I paid him for the sex and deeply insulted his ability to please me. But this stranger turned out to be my new boss!

Show book