A recurrent idea in Darrel Abel's criticism of the works of Hawthorne gives this volume its title.

The book is a collection of fourteen essays by Abel on Hawthorne's fiction. The essays were published over a span of about thirty-five years in various scholarly journals.

Discussion of the careers and writings of the Transcendentalists, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Fuller, and Parker; the Brahmins, Holmes, Longfellow, and Lowell; and other major 19th Century American Writers, including Poe, Whittier, Hawthorne, ...

The book traces the progress from writings about America by foreign observers to the emergence of belletristic literature by native Americans.

Critical analyses of major American works from the Colonial period to 1910. Includes some biographical information on a few famous writers of that period.

Summaries and discussions of the works of Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and Henry James.