THE DEEP ONES: "The Hollow of the Three Hills" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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THE DEEP ONES: "The Hollow of the Three Hills" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

2semdetenebre
Ott 4, 2023, 11:19 am

It's a very nice touch that the spell the "withered crone" casts comes in the form of "monotonous words of a prayer that was not meant to be acceptable in Heaven". And malevolent Witch though she may be, it sounds like she might not be quite as contemptible as the lady at her feet.

Absolutely perfect line: "As the old withered woman spoke, a smile glimmered on her countenance, like lamplight on the wall of a sepulchre."

3AndreasJ
Ott 4, 2023, 1:45 pm

The language is great, yes.

I wondered if the witch’s visions are accurate. I don’t think the story gives us any actual clue.

4housefulofpaper
Ott 4, 2023, 5:27 pm

I read a collection of Hawthorne's short supernatural fiction back in 2008. Apart from re-reading Rappaccini's Daughter a couple of times since, when it came up in other collections, I don't think I've read (or re-read) any other pieces by Hawthorne until now.

I had a sense of missing something, which I remembered from when I read him before. Although I understood on a surface level what was happening, was I meant to understand more of the implications of the scene? Would I "get it" if I knew more about the religious aspects of New England life in the early 19th Century?

I had the same kind of feeling when we read a Flannery O'Connor story a few years ago - her strain of Roman Catholicism being as much a closed book to me as Hawthorne's Puritanism.

5semdetenebre
Ott 4, 2023, 7:47 pm

>4 housefulofpaper:

The crimereads link up above provides some good background which might apply to this tale.

6OrphaBlanda
Modificato: Ott 20, 2023, 6:42 am

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