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Bleak House: Hawthorne

Some years ago it was stated that Hawthorne himself, when asked about it, claimed that he had no particular house in mind when writing the story, but made a composite picture of several.

Hawthorne went back to Concord, going on with his literary work and publishing "Tanglewood Tales," also a "Life of Franklin Pierce"; during this period the author lived at "Wayside."

The writings of Hawthorne show a subtle imagination and a curious power of analysis. Besides great mental traits, he possessed the literary quality of style, a grace and charm, a perfection of language, which no other American writer possessed in the same degree, and which places Hawthorne among the great masters of English prose. His friend and college-mate, Longfellow, in reviewing "Twice Told Tales," said that "it cake from the hand of a genius," and praised it for its style, which, he said, "was as clear as running water." While Hawthorne lacked the accomplished of verse, he was in the highest sense a poet.