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Title: The Marble Faun (Oxford World's Classics)
ISBN: 0192839764
Author:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Publicate Date: 2002-03-07
Publish: 2002-03-07
List Price: $8.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.94
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.94
Amazon Merchant Price: $8.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Tour 19th-Century Rome with Hawthorne
I started the Marble Faun twice: The first time was kind of a slog before my trip to Rome. The instant I got back home drom the trip I started all over again and I felt I was reading a completely different book! It was an absolute joy to tour that wonderful ancient/Christian/Renaissance city with Hawthorne as my guide. After all, Rome hasn't changed THAT much since the mid-19th century, and it's been a tourist attraction forever. Be sure to read this book with the Internet close at hand, or sitting in the public library, or at least a decent pictorial tour book of Rome at hand. (If you google the words `rome art lover' you will find a website that answered most of my questions.) You'll want to see exactly what Hawthorne is talking about. The writing just drips with metaphor and symbolism, ie Corrupt, eroding Europe vs. American Purity. Hawthorne references history, specific artworks, architecture, myth, literature to describe (I wouldn't say flesh out) out his 4 characters--three young American expat artists, and their Italian friend--and the intrigue that manages to take them all over the city and on a trip beyond the walls. I loved Hawthorne's broodings all the things I loved about Rome, in particular a visit to Saint Peter's by an innocent Protestant who has witnessed a murder by her friends. Another highlight: the guilty parties' reaction when, creeped out by something they see in the Capuccine Church, they flee down to that amazing crypt...During his characters' walk through the Forum, Hawthorne ruminates on why the ancient past in Rome seems so much more recent than, say, the Middle Ages do in England. I could go on and on. I did not find the solution to the mystery of the plot at all satisfying, but I forgive Hawthorne this once and have even vowed to re-read the Scarlet Letter, which I didn't enjoy in HS.
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2: A Novel of Conscience
This penetrating and provocative novel has the power to create a trance-like state in the reader's mind. Much of the dream quality of the scenes is the result of the setting in historic Rome, the art focused characters, and, especially, the author's poetic genius.
Like "The Scarlet Letter" and other Nathaniel Hawthorne works, this story centers upon morality and the value of experience in a person's growth, and here read "SIN" for experience.
I read the book in four days, and that is a dash for me. Totally immersed in the story, I frequently found myself marveling at the poetic presentation of universal truths about mankind; some of which had me re-examining hard won personal realizations about morality.
It had been years since I read this icon of the American Renaissance; I'll be reading another selection of his soon.
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3: Maybe not Hawthorne's best, but still good
This is a great book for people who have been to Rome or are going to Rome. However, as with most of Hawthorne's novels, some patience is required. I found that the first half of this book moved along quickly and was, in a word, enchanting. The second half was not quite as engaging and the end seemed somewhat abrupt to me. I almost felt that Hawthorne was in a rush to finish. Not that I didn't enjoy it. I was just left on the last page saying, "What? Where's the rest of the book?" I'll admit it though, I'm a Hawthorne fan and despite it's imperfections this is a worthwhile read and one of my personal favorites.
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4: A Disappointment
According to Hawthorne, this is not a novel, it's a Romance, and not just a Romance, but an Allegory, fraught with Symbolism, to illustrate a MORAL. The end result being that Hawthorne's characters are a cartoonish, unconvincing bunch, uttering stilted dialogue like a troupe of half-baked Shakespearean hams declaiming away in some tawdry, gaslight melodrama. Hawthorne frequently brings the story to a dead stop so that he can inflict on the reader his generally negative opinions on art, Rome, Italians, etc., reserving most of his venom for Catholicism. In spite of all that, he does succeed in telling a story, even if he does cheat the reader out of a satisfactory ending. If you want to read the Fall of Man, acted out by arty Americans in 19th century Rome, you're better off with Roderick Hudson by Henry James. James took the basic elements of Hawthorne's novel and came up with a much more rewarding book.
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5: Innocents Abroad
_The Marble Faun_ concerns three young American artists, Miriam, Hilda and Kenyon, and their Italian faun-like friend, Donatello, whose characters are transformed while on their stay in Rome, the Eternal City. _The Marble Faun_ is very reminiscent of Henry James' novella, "Daisy Miller," where a young and innocent American woman falls under the deleterious spell of this European city. In fact, Hilda, while visiting one of its art galleries is warned by an old German artist to go back to America soon "or you will go never more...The air has been breathed too often, in so many thousand years, and is not wholesome for a little foreign flower like you, my child, a delicate wood-anemone from the western forest-land." Hilda witnesses a serious crime being committed by Donatello and Miriam (supposedly, neither of whom would have done so were it not for the evil influence of Rome's atmosphere) and becomes overwhelmed from ensuing feelings of guilt and depression. Despite her Puritan heritage, Hilda is compelled to unburden herself by seeking confession with a Catholic priest, who suggests that she convert to Catholicism. Hilda seriously considers, but decides to resist this transformation.Hawthorne spends much of the novel in describing in detail Rome's architecture, its art galleries, churches, and its many other landmarks and shrines. When relevant to the story--especially in the author's depiction of the catacombs (from whence Miriam and Donatello commit their unforgivable deed), sunlight streaming through a church's stained glass windows, the extinction of a legendary flame standing before a lofty shrine, and the majestic bronze statue of a pope stretching out his hand in benediction--the effects are quite wonderful. However, a sizable portion of the novel is merely endless travelogue, which seriously detracts from this fairly well-told gothic romance. I did very much like Hawthorne's portrayal of carnival-time in Rome towards the end of the book, and the author's conversation with Kenyon and Hilda at the novel's conclusion is quite charming.
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