The Great Stone Face

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Overview

This collection of tales is an engaging compendium of Hawthorne's short stories, including many set in and around the writer's native New England. The title story is a charming fable-like tale that takes as its focus a long-famous geological feature in the New Hampshire mountains (the face-like granite protrusion collapsed in 2003).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781508019947
Publisher:	Charles River Editors
Publication date:	03/22/2018
Sold by:	PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format:	eBook
Pages:	77
Sales rank:	972,957
File size:	410 KB

About the Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning.

Date of Birth:

July 4, 1804

Date of Death:

May 19, 1864

Place of Birth:

Salem, Massachusetts

Place of Death:

Plymouth, New Hampshire

Education:

Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, 1824

Editorial Reviews

Two thousand five marks the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the Old Man of the Mountain, the long surviving humanlike profile carved in red granite on New Hampshire's Cannon Mountain. Until it collapsed in May 2003, the Great Stone Face had been the state's pride. Indeed, Daniel Webster detected evidence of divine intervention: "God Almighty Himself has hung a sign that here in New Hampshire, he makes men." Nathaniel Hawthorne, in the charming story reprinted here, sensed in it "a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness."

Gary D. Schmidt retells Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Great Stone Face, illus. by Bill Farnsworth, about a village prophecy that a man will be born with the likeness of the visage etched into the stone cliff that stretches above their valley and "will be the noblest person of his time." Only young Ethan and the town pastor still have faith in the prophecy. The artist's luminous oil paintings convey the lush valley as well as the quiet leadership that emanates from Ethan over the years-until readers themselves will recognize, as Ethan's granddaughter does, that the prophecy has indeed been fulfilled.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 2-5-The Great Stone Face (more commonly referred to today as "The Old Man of the Mountains) juts out from the White Mountains of New Hampshire and looms over a small village. An old prophecy states that: "Someone will be born hereabouts who will look just like the Great Stone Face, and he will be the noblest person of his time." Like many others, young Ethan watches the faces of returning famous men for signs of the gentle wisdom seen in the face. The rich merchant, however, is grasping, the soldier only stern, and the politician-well, a politician. Ethan, meanwhile, works hard on his farm, and is looked up to by his neighbors for the thoughtful counsel he offers. When he is an old man, people remark that they fear they will never see the prophecy fulfilled. Ethan's granddaughter, touching his face, remarks that it was fulfilled long ago. Schmidt has done a credible job of retelling Hawthorne's classic tale, eliminating flowery language, and rendering it accessible for a new generation. While the story is intrinsically a teaching tool, this retelling avoids didacticism and lets the events speak for themselves. Farnsworth's oil paintings do a fine job of capturing the beauty of the New England landscape. There is a still, slightly hazy quality to them that is entirely appropriate to the meditative tone of the book. This thoughtful look at what it means to live a good life is as relevant today as when first written.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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