by Nathaniel Nathaniel Hawthorne
First published 2018
This collection brings together Hawthorne's lesser-known stories in their original form. The title story follows children who build a snow child that comes mysteriously to life, testing the boundaries between imagination and reality. Other tales explore the dark corners of Puritan New England, where characters confront moral choices that reveal hidden truths about human nature. Hawthorne weaves supernatural elements into everyday situations, creating stories where the fantastical feels inevitable. A mother watches her snow daughter melt away, a man discovers his true face in an ancient mirror, and townspeople gather around mysteries that expose their deepest fears. These stories capture the tension between innocence and experience, between what we wish were true and what we know to be real. The collection preserves Hawthorne's exploration of guilt, redemption, and the weight of the past on present lives.
Genres: short-stories, classic-literature, american-fiction, fantasy, 19th-century, gothic
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: moral-choices, tension-between-innocence-and-experience
Setting: New England
Period: 19th Century
266 pages · Paperback · Sagwan Press