Nathaniel Hawthorne’s brilliant short story, Young Goodman Brown forever established him as a master storyteller.

Young Goodman Brown takes a small trip down a path into the forest to contemplate a pact with the devil.

His guilt is overwhelming, but he notices something extraordinary on his way to meet Satan. He notices all the fine people of Salem who are gathered in front of himself, already in good association with the Dark Lord.

In Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, the good doctor invites four elderly friends over to his study: Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Medbourne, Mr. Gascoigne, and the Widow Wycherly. Each has squandered youth, money, beauty and power.

The Doctor presents his guests with champagne glasses and an ornate vase full of clear, bubbling liquid: water from the mythical Fountain of Youth…

The premise of Wakefield, is strikingly modern: a man who has lived for years with his wife suddenly walks out, moves a short distance away, and never comes back.

We cohabit—but are we really together?

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864), one of the greatest authors of the nineteenth century, transformed the art of fiction. The author of numerous novels and short stories, including The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, he was an acknowledged master of the form, and admired for his explorations of ancestral sin, guilt, and the concept of justice.