New Essays on Hawthorne's Major Tales examines in detail some of Hawthorne's most important and most beloved stories such as Young Goodman Brown, Roger Malvin's Burial, The Minister's Black Veil, My Kinsman, Major Molineux, Rappaccini's Daughter, and Ethan Brand. The essayists make fresh attempts to probe the complex meaning of these much-discussed works, utilising a variety of topical critical methods. Millicent Bell's introduction analyses Hawthorne's early aspirations, places his writing in the context of contemporary audience expectations, and surveys the history of critical response to the tales from the writer's own time to our own.