The Life and Times of Nathanial Hawthorne is a summary of his life, his career, and an analysis of his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales

Within a relatively small body of work, Nathaniel Hawthorne experimented with different forms and techniques of writing. He was self-taught and self-inspired. Hawthorne's works are deeply concerned with the ethical problems of sin and punishment. He created symbolic fiction through his shadowy and unreal characters. But Hawthorne's best characters revealed the sense of guilt he felt about the roles of his ancestors in the seventeenth century persecution of Quakers and witchcraft trials in Salem. In …

…the hilltop, near where Emerson now rests. Hawthorne's unfinished romance was laid upon his coffin. As Sophia left the open grave, on each side of the path stood Henry Longfellow, Oliver Holmes, John Whittier, James Lowell, Ralph Emerson, Franklin Pierce, and others with uncovered heads, testifying their respect and sympathy. The struggles and successes of authorship for Nathaniel Hawthorne were over and everyone there that day paid tribute for America to their first great novelist.