The Marble Faun

"The Marble Faun," the last of the four major romances that Hawthorne wrote. It is the story of four main characters: Miriam, a beautiful painter; Hilda, an innocent copyist; Kenyon, a sculptor; and Donatello, the Count of Monti Beni. Central to the novel is a theme common to Hawthorne's work, guilt and the Fall of Man. Published in 1860, The Marble Faun is an unusual romance and one of the great writer's classic works.