Shining examples of American literature at its best, these four novels explore timeless themes--adventure, war, sex, and morality--through compelling narratives.
An adulteress, a runaway boy, a terrified soldier, and a maltreated sailor--the heroes of these novels have become a part of popular culture.
This indispensable volume includes.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane Billy Budd by Herman Melville With an Introduction by Sandra Newman About the Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts.
In 1825 he graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, and he returned to Salem determined to become a writer of short stories.
For the next twelve years he was plagued with unhappiness and self-doubts as he struggled to master his craft.
He finally secured some small measure of success with the publication of Twice-Told Tales (1837).
The Scarlet Letter (1850), which brought him immediate recognition, was followed by The House of the Seven Gables (1851).
After serving four years as the American Consul in Liverpool, England, he traveled in Italy; he returned home to Massachusetts in 1860.
He died on May 19, 1864, at Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and died at Redding, Connecticut in 1910.
In his person and in his pursuits he was a man of extraordinary contrasts.
Although he left school at twelve when his father died, he was eventually awarded honorary degrees from Yale University, the University of Missouri, and Oxford University.
His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher.
He made fortunes from his writing but toward the end of his life he had to resort to lecture tours to pay his debts.
He lives in American letters as a great artist, the writer whom William Dean Howells called the Lincoln of our literatur.
Signet Book Four classic american novels: the scarlet letter, adventures of huckleberry finn, the redbadge of courage, billy budd, paperback/nathaniel hawthorne
