an odd fact that in the two countries the book came out under
different titles. The title that the author had bestowed upon it did
not satisfy the English publishers, who requested him to provide it
with another; so that it is only in America that the work bears the
name of _The Marble Fawn_. Hawthorne's choice of this appellation is,
by the way, rather singular, for it completely fails to characterise
the story, the subject of which is the living faun, the faun of flesh
and blood, the unfortunate Donatello. His marble counterpart is
mentioned only in the opening chapter. On the other hand Hawthorne
complained that _Transformation_ "gives one the idea of Harlequin in a
pantomime." Under either name, however, the book was a great success,
and it has probably become the most popular of Hawthorne's four
novels. It is part of the intellectual equipment of the Anglo-Saxon
visitor to Rome, and is read by every English-speaking traveller who
arrives there, who has been there, or who expects to go.

It has a great deal of beauty, of interest and grace; but it has to my
sense a slighter value than its companions, and I am far from
regarding it as the masterpiece of the author, a position to which we
sometimes hear it assigned. The subject is admirable, and so are many
of the details; but the whole thing is less simple and complete than
either of the three tales of American life, and Hawthorne forfeited a
precious advantage in ceasing to tread his native soil. Half the
virtue of _The Scarlet Letter_ and _The House of the Seven Gables_ is
in their local quality; they are impregnated with the New England air.
It is very true that Hawthorne had no pretension to pourtray
actualities and to cultivate that literal exactitude which is now the
fashion. Had this been the case, he would probably have made a still
graver mistake in transporting the scene of his story to a country
which he knew only superficially. His tales all go on more or less "in
the vague," as the French say, and of course the vague may as well be
placed in Tuscany as in Massachusetts. It may also very well be urged
in Hawthorne's favour here, that in _Transformation_ he has attempted
to deal with actualities more than he did in either of his earlier
novels. He has described the streets and monuments of Rome with a
closeness which forms no part of his reference to those of Boston and
Salem. But for all this he incurs that penalty of seeming factitious
and unauthoritativ