Earth's Holocaust

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 44K words
Chapters: 5

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Earth's Holocaust (From "Mosses from an Old Manse") by Nathaniel HawthorneAuthor: Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Nov 1, 2005

Editor's review

"Earth's Holocaust" also comes from Hawthorne's "Mosses from an Old Manse" and is a strangely imaginative allegory: people consign all kinds of old things to a great fire, hoping thereby to bid farewell to the past and remake the world, yet the act of burning itself raises the question of whether tradition, memory, and human nature can truly be erased. Hawthorne lays out this ritual of "purification" in a tone both playful and cool, with rich layers of symbolism and an ending that is especially ironic. For readers, this short piece is not difficult to enter yet leaves a lingering impression after a single reading; it suits those who think about social change, historical memory, and the constancy of human nature. As a public-domain English ebook, it is also easy to search and quote repeatedly, suitable for literature course selections or personal close reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Thoughtful readers concerned with issues of social change and historical memory
Teachers and students who need a short allegory as classroom material
Readers who have read Hawthorne and want to expand their reading of his short fiction
English readers who enjoy symbolism and irony and are willing to read closely

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for realistic stories and contemporary subject matter
Casual readers with little interest in allegory and symbolism
Beginner readers with limited English vocabulary who cannot read the original independently

Reading tips

While reading, list the kinds of objects thrown into the fire and observe why the author chose them.
Slow down at the ending and note the shift in narrative tone and where the irony lands.
After reading, write a short paragraph giving your own view on whether "burning the past can bring rebirth."
If the English is difficult, read a Chinese summary first and then return to the original, focusing on symbolism and tone.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How should "Holocaust" in the title be understood?

It does not refer to the twentieth-century historical event but to the archaic sense of "burning, great fire," denoting the great fire in which people burn old objects in the story. Read it in light of Hawthorne's era and the textual context, and avoid confusing it with the modern historical term.

How is this story related to "The Intelligence Office"?

Both are collected in Mosses from an Old Manse; both are allegorical short stories that use an invented scene to explore questions of human nature and ideas, and they are similar in length and technique. Reading them one after the other makes Hawthorne's shared themes and symbolic habits in his short fiction clearer.

What should I watch for in this public-domain e-book edition?

The text comes from Project Gutenberg and is a public-domain electronic text; it generally preserves the original wording but has plain formatting and no modern scholarly annotations. For quotation or research, check against an authoritative print edition; for ordinary reading, the electronic text can be used directly.

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About the author

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was an American novelist known for his engagement with Puritan tradition and moral allegory. He wrote about sin, guilt, confession, and social prejudice in a restrained style with vivid imagery, often using historical settings and legendary tales to reveal the subtleties of human nature. The collection here holds 98 of his works, including the frequently translated novel The Scarlet Letter, the short-story collection Twice-Told Tales, and children's books drawn from myth and legend such as A Wonder Book for Girls & Boys, Tanglewood Tales, The Gorgon's Head, and The Three Golden Apples, showing his dual interest in New England history and classical myth. His writing has had a lasting influence on American literature's treatment of conscience and identity. Publicly available details of his life are limited, so they are not elaborated here.