Nathaniel Hawthorne, born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts was an American short story writer and romance novelist. He is best known for his short stories and two widely read novels：The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. Along with Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe much of Hawthorne s work belongs to the subgenre of Dark Romanticism. Young Hawthorne was a contemporary of fellow transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Louisa May Alcott. Hawthorne was part of this prominent circle of Massachusetts writers and philosophers. The transcendentalists believed in the “inherent goodness of both people and nature.” Hawthorne s style “is like purity itself.” Hawthorne s highest regarded short stories include My Kinsman, Major Molineaux , Young Goodman Brown, Feathertop, and The Minister s Black Veil . For the record, Hawthorne died in his sleep in 1864 during a tour of the White Mountains in Plymouth, New Hampshire. 霍桑的作品想象丰富、结构严谨。他除了进行心理分析与描写外，还运用了象征主义手法。他的构思精巧的意象，增添了作品的浪漫色彩，加深了寓意。代表作有《牧师的黑面纱》、《年轻的布朗先生》、《拉帕西尼的女儿》等。长篇代表作品《红字》已成为世界文学的经典之一，是美国文学发展史上第一部象征主义小说。 本书精选霍桑46篇经典短篇小说汇集成册，以英文原版形式出版，同时提供配套英文朗读供读者免费下载（下载地址见图书封底），边听边读，更好地提升英文阅读水平。