But as for the old structure of our story, its white-oak frame, and its boards, shingles, and crumbling plaster, and even the huge, clustered chimney in the midst, seemed to constitute only the least and meanest part of its reality. So much of mankind's varied experience had passed there,-so much had been suffered, and something, too, enjoyed,-that ( Read more... )

I guess I was just not in the mood for this. I found the archaic language tedious, the moral dilemmas artificial and not very interesting, and the portrayal of Puritan society unrealistic; I also was repelled by the author's lengthy autobiographical digression about working in the custom-house at the start. Well, one more nineteenth-century classic ( Read more... )