Mosses from an Old Manse is Nathaniel Hawthornes second story collection, first published in 1846 in two volumes and featuring sketches and tales written over a span of more than twenty years, including such classics as Young Goodman Brown, The Birthmark, and Rappaccinis Daughter. Herman Melville deemed Hawthorne the American Shakespeare, and Henry James wrote that his early tales possess the element of simple genius, the quality of imagination. That is the real charm of Hawthornes writingthis purity and spontaneity and naturalness of fancy.From the Trade Paperback edition.