Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fanshawe | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 2 | The Devil in Manuscript | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 3 | Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 4 | The Scarlet Letter | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 5 | The Blithedale Romance | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 6 | The House of the Seven Gables | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 7 | The Marble Faun | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 8 | Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret; A Romance .. | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 9 | The Ancestral Footstep | - | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 10 | Septimius Felton | 1978 | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 11 | The Gray Champion | 2014 | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
| 12 | Grandfather’s Chair | 2016 | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Buy |
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novels form a cornerstone of American literature. The Scarlet Letter remains one of the most widely read American novels, and The House of the Seven Gables is a close second. Fanshawe, his first novel, was published anonymously and later disowned. The Marble Faun, set in Italy, and The Blithedale Romance, based on his time at Brook Farm, round out his major works.
The Scarlet Letter (1850) tells the story of Hester Prynne and her punishment for adultery in Puritan Massachusetts. The House of the Seven Gables (1851) is a Gothic novel about a cursed family in Salem. Both books draw heavily on Hawthorne’s fascination with New England history and inherited sin. The Blithedale Romance (1852) is based on his brief stint at the utopian Brook Farm community.
Several of his later works were left incomplete at his death in 1864. Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret, The Ancestral Footstep, and Septimius Felton were all published posthumously from unfinished manuscripts. Grandfather’s Chair is a children’s history of New England told through the device of an old chair. These incomplete and minor works show where Hawthorne’s imagination was heading in his final years.