Sylph Etherege

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

3.2

Word count: 16K words
Chapters: 2

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.Sylph Etherege 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

Sylph Etherege is a short work by Hawthorne that displays his characteristic allegorical method and psychological suspense. The story centers on an idealized, almost sylph-like female figure and explores the imaginative projection between observer and observed, as well as the boundary between beauty and illusion. Its brevity makes it a fine sample of Hawthorne's short fiction, suitable for classroom discussion or for comparison with pieces in Twice-Told Tales. The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain English eBook with a clean text that is easy to search. Read slowly and attend to the narrator's symbolic descriptions of appearance and setting, and to the ambiguous handling of the ending; familiarity with Hawthorne's Puritan background and the romance tradition will make its blend of irony and melancholy easier to appreciate.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Hawthorne's short stories and allegorical narrative
Students and teachers studying nineteenth-century American literature
New readers who want to understand Hawthorne's symbolism through a short piece
Literature lovers able to read public-domain English eBooks

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a full-length plot with a clear ending
Those with little interest in allegorical, psychologically suggestive narrative
Readers with weak English who need line-by-line annotation

Reading tips

Read through once for the plot, then return to the passages describing the female figure to grasp the symbolism.
Note the narrator's comments on the female figure as you read, and weigh imagination against reality.
After finishing, compare it with other Hawthorne stories to see how allegorical method and theme differ.
Use classroom discussion or a reading group to exchange interpretations of the ending's ambiguity.

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

Is this a novel or a short story?

The available information indicates a short work by Hawthorne, brief enough to read in one or two sittings. Exact page count varies with the eBook's layout, but the burden is clearly lighter than a novel.

Do I need to know Hawthorne's biography first?

A biography is not required, but knowing that Hawthorne often treats human nature and morality through allegory and symbolism helps. Familiarity with the nineteenth-century American romance tradition makes for a fuller experience.

The ending is unclear. How should I understand it?

Hawthorne often preserves ambiguity on purpose, leaving readers to judge the boundary between imagination and reality. Attend to shifts in the narrator's attitude and to the symbolic weight given the female figure; a single conclusion is not required.

Comments

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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.