The Wives of the Dead | Literary Criticism & Book Review

The Wives of the Dead Critical Overview

When "The Wives of the Dead" first appeared in 1832, it was published anonymously. Terrence Martin in his book Nathaniel Hawthone writes that Samuel G. Goodrich, the publisher of The Token, the annual in which the story appeared, included "The Wives of the Dead" along with "The Gentle Boy," "Roger Malvin' s Burial," and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" because they were the best he had received and no one could object to so many stories from the same author if the stories were published anonymously. Though virtually ignored when first published in 1832, "The Wives of the Dead" has gained in critical attention since then, primarily because it is one of Hawthorne's earliest published stories. Writing in 1918, George Edward Woodberry, in his study Nathaniel Hawthorne: How to Know Him, argues that the story is "drenched with Hawthorne's temperament. No other pen could have written it." Mark Van Doren is...
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