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Series Editor: Robert Lecker, McGill University

Written in an easy-to-read, accessible style by teachers with years of classroom experience, Masterwork Studies are guides to the literary works most frequently studied in high school. Presenting ideas that spark imaginations, these books helpstudents to gain background knowledge on great literature useful for papers andexams. The goal of each study is to encourage creative thinking by presenting engaging information about each work and its author. This approach allows students to arrive at sound analyses of their own, based on in-depth studies of popular literature. Each volume:

Illuminates themes and concepts of a classic text Uses clear, conversational language Is an accessible, manageable length from 140 to 170 pages Includes a chronology of the authors life and era Provides an overview of the historical context Offers a summary of its critical reception Lists primary and secondary sources and index

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CHOICE Review

The sentences in this explication of 31 Hawthorne tales are lucid and concise, the readings trendy, repetitious, and trivial. Each story, as read in this study, encourages humility and at the same time the rejection of society's norms; it preaches man's sinfulness while espousing the reign of feelings. The characters in "The Ambitious Guest" err in committing "themselves to a goal instead of trusting their emotional responses to each moment and circumstance." Both conformists and individualists are condemned, tolerance being the only virtue. Using multiple points of view, Hawthorne endorses nature, fantasy, and mystery. Libraries desiring to remain current will purchase this book, whose format students will like: separate discussion of each story; brief excerpts from letters, prefaces, and critics (with much blank space on the pages); chronology; bibliography; index. The excerpts in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales, ed. by James McIntosh (CH, Nov'87) contain more. Neal Frank Doubleday in Hawthorne's Early Tales, A Critical Study (CH, Jan'73) gives better readings. Lea Newman's A Reader's Guide to the Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne (CH, Jul'80) better summarizes the critics. M. S. Stephenson; The University of Texas at Brownsville