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The Great Stone Face, and Other Tales of the White Mountains

by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)

  • Free to read
  • 1 hour to read
  • 5 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"The Great Stone Face, and Other Tales of the White Mountains" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a collection of fictional tales likely written in the late 19th century. This work revolves around themes of nature's majesty and human aspirations, with a focus on the iconic Great Stone Face in New Hampshire, which serves as a symbol of nobility and virtue. The collection explores various characters shaped by their surroundings and their quests for greatness, with the main character, Ernest, representing hope and the longing for a moral ideal linked to the Great Stone Face. At the start of the book, the opening story introduces a mother and her young son, Ernest, who are captivated by the Great Stone Face, a rock formation that resembles a human visage. As they discuss an old prophecy that foretells the emergence of a noble man bearing a likeness to the Great Stone Face, Ernest's admiration grows. The story then follows Ernest as he grows up with the visage as a guiding presence, infusing his life with noble ideals. As rumors swirl about various wealthy or powerful figures returning to the valley, each claiming connections to the prophecy, Ernest remains steadfast in his hope that the true great man will appear. However, as he observes the characters aspiring to fulfill this prophecy, including the greedy merchant Gathergold, he grapples with the realization that true greatness may take forms that are unrecognized by others, challenging the expectations and beliefs of those around him.

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  • Short stories
  • Historical fiction, American
  • White Mountains (N.H. and Me.)
  • Old Man of the Mountain (N.H.)

Read the opening

The Great Stone Face

One afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face. They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. And what was the Great Stone Face? Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valley so spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of these good people dwelt in log-huts, with the black forest all around them, on the steep and difficult hillsides. Others had their homes in comfortable farm-houses, and cultivated the rich soil on the gentle slopes or level surfaces of the valley. Others, again, were congregated into populous villages, where some wild, highland rivulet, tumbling down from its birthplace in the upper mountain region, had been caught and tamed by human cunning, and compelled to turn the machinery of cotton-factories. The inhabitants of this valley, in short, were numerous, and of many modes of life. But all of them, grown people and children, had a kind of familiarity with the Great Stone Face, although some possessed the gift of distinguishing this grand natural phenomenon more perfectly than many of their neighbors.

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Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The Great Stone Face
  3. The Ambitious Guest
  4. A Mystery of the White Mountains
  5. The Notch of the White Mountains

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About this edition

This free edition of The Great Stone Face, and Other Tales of the White Mountains by Nathaniel Hawthorne comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #1916, released 2006-02-26. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Short Stories, American Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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