“The
Centenary Edition, which has been producing weighty volumes of definitively
edited texts of Hawthorne for a full generation, is now the sine qua non
of Hawthorne scholarship. As an example of editorial care and research
thoroughness it has been a model for the profession and as a physical object a
model for publishers. In addition to the immensely important achievement of
producing fully accurate texts of the romances, tales, and sketches, the
Centenary editors have made available, for the very first time, all of the
various Notebooks and letters. For the letters, especially, the wait has been
long but the result is gratifying. Reading straight through the Centenary's six
volumes of letters is a self-indulgent pleasure that brings us markedly closer
to the man than we can get in any other way.” —American
Literature