Nathaniel Hawthorne 12 min read

Ralph Cranfield returns to his New England village convinced that three prophetic signs will mark his high destiny, a treasure, a maiden, and power, never seeing how near they already lie.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1838 tale, from Twice-Told Tales, is a graceful allegorical fantasy. Gentle, wise, beautifully turned. Read it for classic Hawthorne, a wanderer seeking marvels far afield while his true destiny waits quietly at home, a moral fairy tale that clothes New England life in a subtle tinge of the wild and wonderful.

In its time

Published in 1838, during the 1830s, poe and the german romantics.

Reading it

12 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).