Jump to content

A Virtuoso's Collection

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"A Virtuoso's Collection" is a short story by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was first published in Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion, I (May 1842), 193-200, and later included as the final story in the compilation Mosses from an Old Manse.

The story references a number of historical and mythical figures, items, beasts, books, etc. as part of a museum collection. Some scholars regard the real-life museum of the East India Marine Society in Salem, Massachusetts, as a model for Hawthorne's fictional museum.[1] The narrator is led through the collection by the virtuoso himself who turns out to be the Wandering Jew.

The collection

[edit]

Editions

[edit]
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne (May 1842). "A Virtuoso's Collection". Boston Miscellany. 1. hdl:2027/nyp.33433081753711.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Charles E. Goodspeed (1946), Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Museum of the Salem East India Marine Society, Salem, Mass.: Peabody Museum (fulltext via HathiTrust)
  2. ^ "Nicholas Rowe: The Life of Mr. William Shakespear". Archived from the original on 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2008-09-24.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Goluboff, Benjamin (1995). "'A Virtuoso's Collection': Hawthorne, History, and the Wandering Jew". Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 1995 Spring; 21 (1): 14-25. ISSN 0890-4197.
  • McMurray, Price (2002). "'I Would Write on the Lintels of the Door-Post, Whim': History and Idealism in 'A Virtuoso's Collection'. Conference of College Teachers of English Studies. 2002 September; 67: 32-42. ISSN 0092-8151.