I finished reading this doosy last night. It took me forever. But baseball playoffs always slow down my reading. It was a struggle if we're being honest. I had already read a Hawthorne short story compilation book several years ago and thought it was so-so and thus didn't have much confidence in this book going in. It was nice though to revisit some enjoyable stories like The Minister's Black Veil and Wakefield and to discover some new ones like Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure and a few others. But there were just too many duds in there for the book to be enjoyable.
One quote from "The Village Uncle" with a nice eternal families payoff at the end:
"But I loved to lead them by their little hands along the beach, and point to nature in the vast and the minute, the sky, the sea, the green earth, the pebbles, and the shells. Then did I discourse of the mighty works and coextensive goodness of the Deity, with the simple wisdom of a man whose mind had profited by lonely days upon the deep, and his heart by the strong and pure affections of his evening home. Sometimes my voice lost itself in a tremulous depth; for I felt His eye upon me as I spoke. Once, while my wife and all of us were gazing at ourselves in the mirror left by the tide in a hollow of the sand, I pointed to the pictured heaven below, and bade her observe how religion was strewn everywhere in our path; since even a casual pool of water recalled the idea of that home whither we were traveling, to rest forever with our children."
