This short story collection by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1846, begins with an essay describing the Old Manse and the time the author spent living there in Concord. His stories run the gamut from the more familiar, such as "The Birthmark" and "Young Goodman Brown" to the more obscure.

Reading these works was such an interesting experience. I was surprised to discover that I remembered pieces of several stories - they must have been part of my high school literature reading - but others were completely new to me. While Hawthorne is better known for The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables, these stories showcase a broad range of genres and interests, though the nature of the human heart and morality is at the center of most, if not all of them. "The Celestial Railroad" (a modern take on Pilgrim's Progress) and "The Hall of Fantasy" were among my favorites. ( )

"Mosses from an Old Manse and other stories" is a collection of short stories published separately under the author's name. It consisted of "The Birthmark", "Young Goodman Brown", "Rappaccini's Daughter", "Mrs. Bullfrog", "The Celestial Railroad", "The Procession of Life", "Feathertop: A Moralized Legend", Egotism; or The Bosom Serpent", "Drowne's Wooden Image", "Roger Malvin's Burial" and "The Artist of the Beautiful". The collection is freely available from Gutenberg Project and other sites.

Despite the length of the book, I could only concentrate on several of the stories as with my required readings from the collection and I found the overall stories "The Birthmark", "Rappaccini's Daughter", "The Artist of the Beautiful" to be a sort of science fiction fairytale. I'm really surprised with it. For a classic, the style is evidently modern and doesn't overfill itself with too much descriptive details and difficult languages which I find in most of the older literatures.

The stories conveyed in a very specific situation and sets of characters with a moving plot and a moral/philosophical lesson gain in its conclusion. It was easy to identify with the situation particularly when the books never actually try to overwhelm the readers which made its easily accessible.

I've wondered why the author being compared with Poe when it's clearly both writers doesn't write similarly. They maybe gothic authors of their time but Hawthorne's style of writing is very relevant to this day. In fact, I never get the 19th century feel from it since the flow is very direct and straightforward unlike the deary constant character's monologues in classics. I can find a lot of references that would make certain story steampunk by definition which is a genre I'm currently familiarizing with.

To be honest, I never heard of the stories before nor read any Hawthorne book in my life. I'm glad to have found a good author that I like. The other collection which was Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales consisted of many pieces of his work and I don't think I will be reviewing that soon since I would have wanted to read each of his work (same goes as Grimms Tales and Portable Poe).

"The Rappaccini's Daughter" is by far one of my favourite. The retelling from an Italian story of a forbidden romance, confused main character, victimized by a manipulator and most importantly, the toxicology elements in it which probably one of my favourite subject during university. I guess Hawthorne can be considered as a predecessor to Mary Shelley in the rising era of science fiction.

I really wish Hawthorne is in my highschool syllabus. It would make the readings more interesting than boring ones that I had to suffer. ( )

A pleasant surprise, some well-written early science fiction. There are interesting parallels with Poe, but Hawthorne has a much lighter (both more subtle and less gloomy) touch. ( )