Snow Flakes (From "Twice Told Tales") E-Book

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

In "Snow Flakes," featured in Hawthorne's collection "Twice Told Tales," the author employs a rich, lyrical style that captivates the reader with its vivid imagery and profound philosophical undertones. This short story is a masterful reflection on the beauty and transience of nature, symbolized through the unique forms of snowflakes. Hawthorne intricately weaves a narrative that explores themes of individuality and the fleeting essence of experience, echoing the transcendentalist movements of his time while maintaining his distinct character-driven exploration of human emotion. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a prominent figure in American literature, often drew inspiration from his New England heritage and the complexities of the human psyche. His life experiences, including his Puritan ancestry and profound reflections on morality and sin, shaped his literary voice. "Snow Flakes" illustrates Hawthorne's fascination with the natural world and his ability to infuse it with deeper moral implications, highlighting his role in early American romanticism. This enchanting tale is highly recommended for readers who appreciate thoughtful literature woven with symbolic depth. "Snow Flakes" offers a glimpse into the ephemeral wonders of life through Hawthorne's delicate prose, making it a delightful addition to both casual readers and scholars of American literature. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - An Author Biography reveals milestones in the author's life, illuminating the personal insights behind the text. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.

Leseprobe

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Snow Flakes (From "Twice Told Tales")

Enriched edition. Gothic Romantic exploration of guilt, redemption, and sin in 'Snow Flakes'

In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience.

Introduction, Studies and Commentaries by Jamie Hicks

Edited and published by Good Press, 2020

[email protected]

EAN 4064066090647

Table of Contents

Introduction

Synopsis (Selection)

Historical Context

Author Biography

Snow Flakes (From "Twice Told Tales")

Analysis

Reflection

Memorable Quotes

Introduction

Table of Contents

Snow falls and the mind turns inward, discovering worlds of meaning in a single drifting flake. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Snow Flakes invites readers to contemplate the quiet theater of winter as a mirror for inner life. Without plot or spectacle, this brief meditation transforms an ordinary atmospheric event into a scene of moral and imaginative attention. Its power lies in the way it slows perception, so that hush, whiteness, and motionless depth become signs to be read. In a few pages, Hawthorne sketches a landscape where external change awakens introspection, aligning nature’s gentle descent with the soul’s reflective ascent.

Snow Flakes endures as a classic because it exemplifies Hawthorne’s gift for turning the commonplace into the emblematic. The piece sits within a body of work that helped define the American short prose tradition, proving that profound ideas can emerge from the lightest touch. Its influence extends through the American Renaissance, with its economical symbolism, measured tone, and ethical resonance shaping expectations for what a short sketch can accomplish. By fusing mood, image, and moral inquiry, Hawthorne provides a model of disciplined lyric prose that continues to instruct writers on how to extract depth from surface and reflection from stillness.

Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and first collected in Twice-Told Tales, Snow Flakes belongs to the early nineteenth-century American literary moment. Twice-Told Tales appeared in 1837, with an expanded edition in 1842, and gathered pieces Hawthorne had crafted across the 1830s. Snow Flakes is a brief prose meditation: the narrator observes snowfall and considers its meanings, textures, and suggestions, moving from sensory detail toward inward rumination. Hawthorne’s purpose is not to narrate events but to refine attention, to uncover the moral and imaginative possibilities latent in a winter scene, and to frame nature as an instrument for ethical self-awareness.

Hawthorne writes from within a culture haunted by Puritan inheritance and animated by Romantic introspection. Snow Flakes channels both forces: the language of the natural world becomes a vocabulary for conscience, and a modest New England landscape becomes the stage for symbolic reading. Its calm surface conceals an allegorical impulse that would mark Hawthorne’s later fiction, where setting and psyche converse. As American letters sought forms distinct from European models, pieces like this helped articulate a local idiom—attentive to weather, season, and community—while pursuing universal questions about time, perception, and the delicate traffic between outward fact and inner truth.

The artistry of Snow Flakes lies in its poise. Hawthorne’s sentences move with the same measured drift as the flakes they describe, building an atmosphere of clarity without coldness. Image follows image—whiteness, hush, the gentle veiling of familiar shapes—until the reader feels the scene deepen into significance. The voice is intimate yet ceremonious, guiding without insisting, suggestive rather than moralizing. Hawthorne’s symbolism never shouts; it accumulates. By using the smallest natural particulars to illuminate inward states, he demonstrates a signature method: modesty of scale, precision of observation, and a final turn toward meanings that feel discovered rather than imposed.