"TEXTS WHOSE POWER, PROFUNDITY AND ARTISTRY COMMAND OUR ATTENTION"

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel. Complete Works. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and The Riverside Press, 1886. Twelve volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter brown morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. $3800.

“Riverside” edition, with frontispieces and etched vignette title pages, handsomely bound by Riviere&Son.

Introductory notes by Hawthorne's son-in-law George Parsons Lathrop. Etchings by Blum, Church, Dielman, Gifford, Shirlaw and Turner. "Whatever their disagreements, most of his critics and biographers continue to regard Hawthorne as his distinguished contemporaries Fields and Melville did-as a shrewd and large-minded writer who read widely and pondered deeply about the human condition and about American identity from Puritan times to his own… He created texts whose power, profundity and artistry command our attention" (ANB). These volumes include such classics as The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, Mosses from an Old Manse-the collection that includes "Rappacini's Daughter" and "Young Goodman Brown"-and Twice-Told Tales. Bookplates.

A fine set.