Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
"The fragility - and the durability - of human life and art dominate this story of American expatriates in Italy in the mid-nineteenth century. Befriended by Donatello, a young Italian with the classical grace of the 'Marble Faun', Miriam, Hilda, and Kenyon find their pursuit of art taking a sinister turn as Miriam's unhappy past precipitates the present into tragedy.".
"Hawthorne's 'International Novel' dramatizes the confrontation of the Old World and the New and the uncertain relationship between the 'authentic' and the 'fake' in life as in art. The author's evocative descriptions of classic sites made The Marble Faun a favourite guidebook to Rome for Victorian tourists, but his richly ambiguous symbolic romance is also the story of a murder, and a parable of the Fall of Man.
As the characters find their civilized existence disrupted by the awful consequences of impulse, Hawthorne leads his readers to question the value of Art and Culture and addresses the great evolutionary debate which was beginning to shake Victorian society."--BOOK JACKET.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English
Subjects
Fiction, Murder, Women art students, Americans, Artists, Nobility, Classic Literature, Literature, Rome (Italy), Psychological fiction, Love stories, American fiction (fictional works by one author), Artists, fiction, Rome (italy), fiction, Fiction, psychological, Fiction, romance, general, Crime, fiction, Women artists, fiction, Italy, fiction, Large type books, Guilt, Conscience, HistoryPlaces
Rome (Italy), ItalyShowing 11 featured editions. View all 133 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
01 |
bbbb
|
02 |
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
03 |
bbbb
|
04 |
bbbb
|
05 |
bbbb
|
06 |
bbbb
|
07 |
bbbb
|
08 |
bbbb
|
09 |
bbbb
|
10 |
bbbb
|
11 |
cccc
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [xliii]-xlvi)
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Work Description
Hawthorne's novel of Americans abroad, the first novel to explore the influence of European cultural ideas on American morality. Although it is set in Rome, the fictive world of The Marble Faun depends not on Italy's social or historical significance, but rather on its aesthetic importance as a definer of 'civilization'. As in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne is concerned here with the nature of transgression and guilt. A murder, motivated by love, affects not only Donatello, the murderer, but his beloved Miriam and their friends Hilda and Kenyon. As he explores the reactions of each to the crime, Hawthorne dramatizes both the freedoms a new cultural model inspires and the self-censoring conformities it requires. His examination of the influence of European culture on American travellers lay the groundwork for such later works of American fiction as Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad and Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady.
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created April 1, 2008
- 15 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
November 14, 2023 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
November 15, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
December 3, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
October 8, 2020 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record. |