What a fine thing we thought the
golden touch until he touched his beautiful little daughter, Marygold! No
sermon could better have taught us that gold is not the thing above all to
be desired.
[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES]
Hawthorne stands in the front rank of a very small number whose writings
continue to appeal to the children of succeeding generations. He loved and
understood children and shared their experiences. He was one of those whose
sixteenth amendment to the Constitution reads, "The rights and caprices of
children in the United States shall not be denied or abridged on account of
age, sex, or formal condition of tutelage."
GREAT ROMANCES.--Hawthorne wrote four long romances: _The Scarlet Letter_
(1850), the scene of which is laid in Boston in Governor Winthrop's time,
_The House of the Seven Gables_ (1851), with the scene laid in Salem, _The
Marble Faun_ (1860), in Rome, and _The Blithedale Romance_ (1852), in an
ideal community similar to Brook Farm. The first three of these works have
a great moral truth to present. Accordingly, the details of scene, plot,
description, and conversation are handled so as to emphasize this central
truth.
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