New England Gothic--Today and Yesterday
In the summer of 1947 a “trespasser” in Cairy Hollow approaches the vestiges of the cottage that once belonged to seamstress Bess Dalby. His eyes track flickers of candlelight as an old woman moves through the house, his feet stumble as the door opens, his wish to learn the story behind the demise of the nearby Cairy Hollow mansion falters, yet he enters the cottage and hears about the power that destroyed the house and the wild souls that possess it now.
That story begins and ends on a single day--October 31, 1925--the day Civette Middleton and her beau Richard Marlow will announce their engagement and plans for marriage. At Bess Dalby’s cottage, a pair of ravens drop from the roof to the earth and take the form of the Raven Ladies known as Mirth and Sorrow. A spiraling weathervane joins them as a small man dressed in the manner of a strolling player and calling himself Captain Balefire.
Angry that they will be losing the shelter of the mansion and determined to keep Cairy Hollow to themselves, the three hatch a plot--to transform Bess’ pumpkin-headed scarecrow into the handsome, charming Sir Adrian Bramwell, sweep Civette off her feet, and spirit her away so she cannot take possession of the household. Their actions and the consequences are revealed in the recently published Nothing Gold Can Stay, a reimagining of “Feathertop,”a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and an example of what author Mary J. Carter calls New England Gothic.
Nothing Gold Can Stay: Carter, Mary J: 9781509250653: Amazon.com: Books
For this author’s review, see: https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/nothing-gold-can-stay/
Gothic Literature
Mystery, terror, the presence of the supernatural, hauntings from the past, demons, demonic possession, ghosts, evil spirits--the things Gothic fictional dreams are made of--are even more vividly alive today than when they first appeared in fiction in 1764 with the publication of Horace Walpole’s tale of the discovery of a medieval manuscript in The Castle of Otranto. (Gothic fiction - Wikipedia)
It may be hard for modern aficionados to believe, but Gothic fiction was so pervasive in the 1790s that Samuel Taylor Coleridge complained: “I am almost weary of the Terrible” after reviewing novels “in which dungeons and old castles and solitary houses by the sea side and caverns and woods and extraordinary characters and all the tribe of horror and mystery have crowded in on me.” (Gothic fiction - Wikipedia)
Yet renowned authors of the past such as Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Edgar Alan Poe, and Robert Louis Stevenson are now joined by modern masters of the Gothic--Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Toni Morrison. (Intro to New England Gothic - The Gothic Library)
Early on, Gothic’s roots sprouted in Europe among imposing English medieval castles, French opera house phantasms, remote Irish aristocrats, and Spanish legends and soon spread to the environs of Imperial Russia. In the US, the genre took two paths: Southern Gothic--a deep dive into the corruption behind the facade of respectability; and New England Gothic--a walk through a foreboding backwoods environment that carries the detritus and sordid history of the Salem witch trials. (Gothic fiction - Wikipedia)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered to be the father of New England Gothic. (Intro to New England Gothic - The Gothic Library) Born in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1804, Hawthorne had direct connections to both sides of the Salem Witch Trials; he was the great-great grandson of the trial judge John Hathorne and was related to two of the accused witches and one of the accusers.
Haunted and ashamed by these relationships, Hawthorne wrote: “I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them, in another state of being. At all events, I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them—as I have heard, and as the dreary and unprosperous condition of the race, for many a long year back, would argue to exist—may be now and henceforth removed.” (The Custom-House, an introductory sketch to the Scarlet Letter)
It’s also been said that Hawthorne added the w to his last name to distance himself from these ancestors in 1830. (The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne ( Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, September 15, 2011 )
https://www.nocloo.com/nathaniel-hawthorne-biography/
Hawthorne began writing short stories while at Bowdoin College, Maine, in 1821, and self-published his first novel, Fanshawe, in 1825. Twenty-five years later, his most enduring works were published: The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter. (Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert McNamara, Updated on January 22, 2018)
Hawthorne wrote nearly 50 short stories, including “The Great Stone Face” and other tales from his visits to New Hampshire’s White Hills. Among his writings are “Young Goodman Brown,” considered to be “as deep as Dante” by Herman Melville in its exploration of human nature’s dark side. “The Birthmark” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” explore two sides of the human face--one with a blemish a woman’s husband insists must be removed and one inexplicably and suddenly hidden behind a mask (https://interestingliterature.com/2021/04/best-nathaniel-hawthorne-novels-and-stories/).
It was difficult for Hawthorne to get his stories published early on. It wasn’t until 1850 with the publication of The Scarlet Letter that his writing was recognized. Though his writing style was considered “old-fashioned” even in his day, Hawthorne’s work deeply influenced Herman Melville as he was writing Moby Dick, and when he died in 1864, The New York Times described him as “the most charming of American novelists and one of the foremost descriptive writers in the language.” Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne)
Feathertop
Hawthorne’s “Feathertop” short story, published in 1852, describes Mother Rigby’s transformation of a scarecrow into a man who will woo the daughter of Judge Gookin, Polly. (Feathertop)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/feathertop-nathaniel-hawthorne/1014392212
https://www.amazon.com/Feathertop-Nathaniel-Hawthorne/dp/1499616139
Though only 24 pages in length, “Feathertop” has sparked many iterations. The story was turned into silent films in 1912 and 1916 and television programs in 1955 and 1961. The first television production starred Natalie Wood, the second was a musical with Jane Powell, Hugh O’Brien, and Hans Conried. An expanded version of the story, including additional characters and motivations, was turned into the play called The Scarecrow in 1908. A movie version, called Puritan Passions, was released in 1923, and the play starring Gene Wilder and Blythe Danner was again aired in 1972. The story was set to music as an opera in 1945 and more recently in 2006, and a video musical, also called The Scarecrow, was released in 2000. (Feathertop)
Listopia ranks other scary scarecrow stories: Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, by R. L. Stine, The Wide Game by Michael West, The Shadow at the Bottom of the World by Thomas Ligotti, and Tatterdemon by Steve Vernon among them.
Nothing Gold and Feathertop
Nothing Gold Can Stay is far more layered and complex than its inspiration “Feathertop.” Fantastical creatures Mirth, Sorrow, and Captain Balefire are multidimensional--cunning, calculating, often merciless in their determination. Human characters are flawed and regretful, lamenting past actions and, even more important, inaction.
But in the end, the stories are similar. They employ witchcraft and sorcery to set their characters’ plans in motion and manipulate people, places, and things to advance objectives. They highlight cupidity and the ease with which individuals may be fooled by appearances and trappings. While playing upon fears of a human-like figure meant to fool and scare animals away from cornfields, the two stories end up poignantly, eliminating frippery so the unsuspecting as well as the implicated must strip away the make-believe and leading readers to marvel at the innovation and mourn the loss of innocence.
As Mother Rigby rues at the end of “Feathertop,” “My poor, dear, pretty Feathertop! There are thousands upon thousands of coxcombs and charlatans in the world, made up of just such a jumble of wornout, forgotten, and good-for-nothing trash as he was! Yet they live in fair repute, and never see themselves for what they are. And why should my poor puppet be the only one to know himself and perish for it?” (“Feathertop”)
Sources:
History of Massachusetts Blog: The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, September 15, 2011
Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, New England's Most Prominent Novelist Focused on Dark Themes
Robert McNamara, updated on January 22, 2018
Fantastic Facts About Nathaniel Hawthorne, Karin Crompton | Sep 22, 2022
Feathertop: A Moralized Legend
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864), From Nathaniel Hawthorne: Tales & Sketches