Product Description
by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Author), 1stworld Library (Editor)
THE first three numbers in this collection are tales of the White Hills in New Hampshire. The passages from Sketches from Memory show that Hawthorne had visited the mountains in one of his occasional rambles from home, but there are no entries in his Note Books which give accounts of such a visit. There is, however, among these notes the following interesting paragraph, written in 1840 and clearly foreshadowing The Great Stone Face: 'The semblance of a human face to be formed on the side of a mountain, or in the fracture of a small stone, by a lusus naturae freak of nature]. The face is an object of curiosity for years or centuries, and by and by a boy is born whose features gradually assume the aspect of that portrait. At some critical juncture the resemblance is found to be perfect. A prophecy may be connected.'
Back Jacket
Do you know the prophecy?" asked Pastor Hooper.
Ethan nodded. "Someone will be born hereabouts who will look just like
the Great Stone Face, and he will be the noblest person of his time."
Ethan grows up in the shadow of The Great Stone Face. With everyone else in his village, he waits and wonders who will fulfill the prophecy. One by one, men of wealth and power are believed to be the likeness of the Great Stone Face, but as the years go by each one disappoints. Ethan begins to believe the prophecy will not be fulfilled in his lifetime, until a young child, seeing more deeply than all the rest, reveals the truth . . .
Gary Schmidt's retelling of this classic story by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a moving look at the nature of goodness and a life well-lived. And Bill Farnsworth has beautifully captured the period and the tale's New England setting with images in the tradition of the Golden Age of Illustration.
