The Minister's Black Veil
A village minister covers his face with black crape and never takes it off, even in his coffin.
Twice-Told Tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Twice-Told Tales
Hawthorne's first book of stories, from a minister who hides his face behind a black veil to four old friends who drink from the Fountain of Youth.
- 1837
- Atmospheric
- Melancholy
- episodic
- dark
- lyrical
About Nathaniel Hawthorne
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeTwice-Told Tales is Nathaniel Hawthorne's first collection of short stories. The title means the stories had been told once already, in magazines and gift annuals, before they were gathered into a book. The first volume came out in Boston in 1837 with eighteen pieces. An enlarged edition in two volumes followed in 1842. The best-known stories are "The Minister's Black Veil", about a village parson who covers his face for the rest of his life, and "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", in which four old people drink from the Fountain of Youth. "Wakefield" follows a London man who leaves his wife and lives in the next street for twenty years. Many of the other tales retell legends of Puritan Massachusetts.
The story, in more detail
Hawthorne wrote most of these stories in the ten or twelve years after he left Bowdoin College in 1825. He lived in his family's house in Salem and published the stories in magazines, sometimes under his own name and sometimes under pen names. George Parsons Lathrop, who edited his collected works, says the book was published only because Hawthorne's college friend Horatio Bridge privately guaranteed the cost. Lathrop also suggests the title came from a line in Shakespeare's King John: "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale."[1]
The first edition was published in Boston in 1837 by the American Stationers Company, John B. Russell. The volume held eighteen pieces, from "The Gray Champion" to "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment".[2] James Munroe and Company of Boston brought out an enlarged edition in two volumes in 1842.[3] In 1851, after The Scarlet Letter had made him famous, Hawthorne reissued the book with a new preface.[1]
In that preface Hawthorne looks back at his early years. He says that for many years he was the obscurest man of letters in America. He counts about forty sketches saved from that time and says he burned the rest. The stories, he writes, have the pale tint of flowers grown in too much shade. He also insists they are not the talk of a lonely man with himself. He calls them his attempts, not very successful ones, to open a conversation with the world.[1]
What's inside
In "The Minister's Black Veil", subtitled "A Parable", the Reverend Mr. Hooper of Milford arrives one Sunday with a piece of black crape over his face. He never explains it and never takes it off. His fiancée, Elizabeth, begs him to lift it once, and when he refuses she leaves him. A footnote names a real New England minister, Joseph Moody of York, Maine, who hid his face after accidentally killing a friend.[4]
In "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" an old doctor invites four elderly friends to his study: three ruined gentlemen and the widow Wycherly, whom all three once courted. He first revives a rose given to him fifty-five years earlier by the woman he was to marry. Then he gives them water from the Fountain of Youth.[4]
"Wakefield" is told as an anecdote remembered from an old newspaper. A London man tells his wife he is going on a short journey, takes rooms in the next street, and stays there for more than twenty years. He watches his own house and his wife almost every day.[4]
Many of the other tales come from colonial Massachusetts. In "The Gray Champion" an old man faces down the royal governor Sir Edmund Andros in the streets of Boston in 1689. "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" shows the Puritan John Endicott breaking up a settlement of revellers. The four "Legends of the Province House" are set in the Boston residence of the royal governors. In "Endicott and the Red Cross" Endicott cuts the cross of England out of the colony's flag at Salem.[4]
How it ends — spoilers ahead
Mr. Hooper wears the veil until he dies. On his deathbed he tells the people around him that he sees a black veil on every face. He is buried with it on.
Dr. Heidegger's four guests grow young, flirt, quarrel over the widow and knock the vase of water to the floor. The effect fades and they are old again. The doctor says he would not drink from the fountain himself even if it flowed at his door. The friends learn nothing and set off for Florida to find the fountain.
Wakefield walks home on a gusty, showery autumn evening as if he had been away for a day, and lives with his wife as a loving husband until he dies. The narrator's moral is that a man who steps aside for a moment can lose his place forever and become the outcast of the universe.
Themes and analysis
Edgar Allan Poe's review
Edgar Allan Poe reviewed the 1842 edition in Graham's Magazine, first briefly in April and then at length in May. In April he complained that the title was wrong twice over. The stories had now been told three times, and many of the pieces were essays, not tales. He still called Hawthorne one of the few men of indisputable genius America had produced.
The May review is where Poe set out his idea of how a short story should work. A skilful writer, he said, first decides on a single effect, then invents only the incidents that build it. No word should be written that does not serve that one design. Poe praised "Wakefield" and "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" and called "The Minister's Black Veil" a masterly composition.
Poe also offered a reading of the veil that the story never states. He thought most readers would take the dying minister's speech as the meaning. He suspected Hooper had committed a dark crime connected with the young woman whose funeral he preaches early in the story.
The stories in Paris
Paris readers first met these stories in the Revue des Deux Mondes. In 1852 the critic Émile Daurand Forgues wrote a long essay on Hawthorne there, reviewing the London editions of his books. He retold "The Minister's Black Veil" and "Wakefield" for French readers. He translated the minister's dying words as "je vois, hélas ! sur chaque face un voile noir".
A French book of the stories came out in Paris in 1876 as Contes étranges, translated by E.-A. Spoll. The selection included "L'Expérience du docteur Heidegger", "M. Wakefield" and "La Combe des trois collines", along with tales from Hawthorne's later collections. In 1888 the Paris publisher H. Gautier issued Contes racontés deux fois, a direct translation of the title, with a study of Hawthorne by Charles Simond.
Quotes from Twice-Told Tales
I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a black veil!
Like Wakefield, he may become, as it were, the outcast of the universe.
Well, I bemoan it not; for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it—no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me.
Why we recommend it
The start of the American short story
Edgar Allan Poe used the 1842 edition to set out his theory that a tale should build one single effect.
Two classroom favourites
"The Minister's Black Veil" and "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" are both short enough to read in one sitting.
"Wakefield"
The story of a man who hides one street away from his own wife for twenty years. Poe singled it out as a sketch of singular power.
Where The Scarlet Letter began
"Endicott and the Red Cross" already has a woman in Puritan Massachusetts forced to wear the letter A, which she has embroidered herself.
What this book explores
Bring it to book club
- Why does Mr. Hooper wear the veil? Is Poe's guess about a hidden crime convincing?
- Dr. Heidegger's friends learn nothing from the experiment. Does the doctor?
- Wakefield has no reason for leaving. Does the story need one?
- Hawthorne calls these stories an attempt to open a conversation with the world. Do they feel lonely or sociable to you?
Inside the book
Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
Four old friends drink water from the Fountain of Youth and become young, foolish and jealous for a few minutes. The last story in the 1837 first edition.
Wakefield
A London husband walks out on his wife, lives one street away for twenty years, and then comes home.
The Gray Champion
An old Puritan appears in Boston in 1689 to face down the royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros. The first story in the book.
The May-Pole of Merry Mount
John Endicott and his Puritans break up a colony of revellers on the day of a wedding.
Legends of the Province House
Four tales told in an old Boston tavern that was once the governors' residence, including "Lady Eleanore's Mantle", in which a proud woman's embroidered cloak carries smallpox into the town.
Endicott and the Red Cross
Endicott cuts the cross out of the English flag at Salem. In the crowd is a woman forced to wear the letter A.
The Hollow of the Three Hills
A young woman asks an old witch to show her what became of the family she abandoned.
Timeline
1837
The American Stationers Company publishes the first volume in Boston, with eighteen pieces. Horatio Bridge has privately guaranteed the cost.
1842
James Munroe and Company publish an enlarged edition in two volumes. Edgar Allan Poe reviews it in Graham's Magazine in April and May.
1851
A new edition appears with Hawthorne's preface calling himself the obscurest man of letters in America.
1852
Émile Daurand Forgues retells "The Minister's Black Veil" and "Wakefield" in the Revue des Deux Mondes in Paris.
1876
Contes étranges, a French selection including "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" and "Wakefield", is published in Paris.
1888
Contes racontés deux fois is published in Paris by H. Gautier.
Book editions
- Paperback
- Modern Library
- 2001
- 9780375757884
- Hardcover
- Ohio State University Press
- 1974
- 9780814202029
- Hardcover
- Library of America
- 1982
- 9780940450035
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- American Stationers Company, Boston
- 1837
Reader reviews
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Read our takeThe House of the Seven Gables
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His next novel, set in Salem, which reuses the legends of old Massachusetts families.
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Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
Edgar Allan Poe's own story collection, published two years after Hawthorne's first volume. Poe reviewed Twice-Told Tales in 1842.
Read our takeTwice-Told Tales: frequently asked questions
What stories are in Twice-Told Tales?
The enlarged 1842 edition has about forty pieces. The best known are "The Minister's Black Veil", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", "Wakefield", "The Gray Champion", "The May-Pole of Merry Mount", "The Hollow of the Three Hills", "Endicott and the Red Cross" and the four "Legends of the Province House".
Why is it called Twice-Told Tales?
Because the stories had already appeared once in magazines and gift annuals before they were collected. George Parsons Lathrop suggested the phrase came from Shakespeare's King John: "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale."
What is "The Minister's Black Veil" about?
A New England minister, Mr. Hooper, starts wearing a black veil over his face one Sunday and never removes it. He loses his fiancée and frightens his congregation. On his deathbed he says he sees a black veil on every face, meaning that everyone hides a secret sin.
What happens in "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"?
Dr. Heidegger gives four elderly friends water from the Fountain of Youth. They become young for a short time, flirt and fight, and spill the rest of the water. When they grow old again, they decide to go to Florida to find the fountain themselves.
When was Twice-Told Tales published?
The first volume came out in Boston in 1837. An enlarged edition in two volumes followed in 1842, and a new edition with Hawthorne's preface in 1851.
What did Edgar Allan Poe say about it?
He praised it in two reviews in Graham's Magazine in 1842 and called Hawthorne a man of indisputable genius. In the second review he set out his theory that a short story should be built around a single effect.
Is there a Paris connection?
Through French critics and translators. Émile Daurand Forgues retold two of the stories in the Revue des Deux Mondes in 1852. French selections appeared in Paris in 1876, as Contes étranges, and in 1888, as Contes racontés deux fois.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Twice-Told Tales, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1abcTwice-Told Tales, with an introductory note by George Parsons Lathrop and Hawthorne's 1851 preface (scan)
NovelHoughton, Mifflin and Company (Boston); scan at the Internet ArchiveUsed forThe Houghton, Mifflin edition with George Parsons Lathrop's note and Hawthorne's 1851 preface. The preface quotations were checked against this scan.
2↑Twice-Told Tales (first edition, scan)
NovelAmerican Stationers Company, John B. Russell (Boston); scan at the Internet Archive, 1837Used forA scan of the 1837 first edition, for the publisher and the eighteen pieces it contained.
3↑Review of Twice-Told Tales (Graham's Magazine, April 1842)
PeriodicalThe Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, 1842Used forEdgar Allan Poe's first, short review in Graham's Magazine, April 1842.
5Review of Twice-Told Tales (Graham's Magazine, May 1842)
PeriodicalThe Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, 1842Used forPoe's full review in Graham's Magazine, May 1842, with his theory of the single effect.
6Romanciers américains: Nathaniel Hawthorne (Revue des Deux Mondes, nouvelle période, tome 14, 1852, pages 337 to 365; Wikisource transcription)
PeriodicalRevue des Deux Mondes (Paris); Wikisource, 1852Used forÉmile Daurand Forgues's 1852 essay in the Revue des Deux Mondes, as transcribed on French Wikisource.
7Contes étranges / Nathaniel Hawthorne ; trad. de E.-A. Spoll, Paris: C. Lévy, 1876 — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1876Used forThe Bibliothèque nationale de France record for the 1876 Paris selection.
8Contes étranges, translated by E.-A. Spoll (Wikisource contents page)
NovelCalmann Lévy (Paris); Wikisource, 1876Used forThe table of contents of Contes étranges, as transcribed from the 1876 edition.
9Contes racontés deux fois, avec étude sur la vie et l'oeuvre de N. Hawthorne par Charles Simond, Paris: H. Gautier, 1888 — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1888Used forThe BnF record for the 1888 Paris translation.
10Open Library — Twice-Told Tales editions
WebsiteOpen LibraryUsed forLibrary catalogue records for every modern ISBN listed.
11Twice-Told Tales
NovelNathaniel Hawthorne, 1837Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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