Nathaniel Hawthorne’s first novel Fanshawe, partially due to its author’s
deliberate and quite successful efforts to suppress it, has never
attracted the attention it deserves. The critics who have heeded it have
mostly focused their discussions on its derivative characteristics. Also,
Robert E. Gross detected and called attention to the timid presence of the
great Hawthornean themes which he thought had survived until the end
of his career. This brief paper attempts to analyse some other very essential
features in Fanshawe that Gross neglected. Not only are Hawthorne’s
traditional themes and his distinct style perceptible in Fanshawe, but
also his personal likes and dislikes, his obsessions, his dreams and preoccupations.
These and many other idiosyncrasies of Hawthorne permeate
Fanshawe and were an essential part of his later literature.
