Confessions and Criticisms

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hawthorne, Julian, 1846-1934

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource : multiple file formats

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg,

Summary:

"Confessions and Criticisms" by Julian Hawthorne is a collection of reflective essays and literary critiques written during the late 19th century. In this work, Hawthorne, the son of the famous novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, explores his journey into the literary world, sharing personal anecdotes and philosophical insights on the nature of writing and the state of literature, particularly focusing on American fiction. The opening of the work serves as a preliminary confession that sets the tone for the discussions to follow. Hawthorne recounts his early experiences with writing, including his initial forays into poetry and short stories while working in civil engineering. He shares the evolution of his career, detailing his challenges with acceptance in the literary community due to his father's legacy and the struggle to find his own voice as a writer. This reflective introduction not only highlights his literary aspirations and frustrations but also hints at a broader critique of the American literary landscape, engaging with themes of identity, morality in fiction, and the complexities of a novel's creation, thus inviting readers into a candid exploration of both his personal narrative and the craft of writing itself. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Contents:

A preliminary confession

Novels and agnosticism

Americanism in fiction

Literature for children

The moral aim in fiction

The maker of many books

Mr. Mallock's missing science

Theodore Winthrop's writings

Emerson as an American

Modern magic

American wild animals in art.

Credits:

Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, John R. Bilderback and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Notes:

Reading ease score: 52.5 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read.

Release date is 2005-02-01