A simple, pleasant set of four stories. Hawthorne's style is definitely out of fashion now, verbose and rather sentimental, but although these now seem quite dated, I found they worked well for these stories. They're simple, almost humble stories, all based loosely on some real thing or event. I don't think I'd want to read a lot of his work, as it feels simplistic and the style now grates a bit, but these were fine. ( )

The Ambitious Guest - (Kinda cool irony, but not much of a story. Guy wants to be something before he dies and then he dies.)

The Great Carbuncle - (Too obviously moralistic. The greedy people pay, the good people leave it behind.)

The Great Stone Face - (Interesting and kind of cool. One day a great man will come and he will have the face of the mountain.) ( )