What is Hawthorne's eminent literary reputation--"enduring" or "hypertrophied"? Both views are represented in this basic collection of seminal 19th- and 20th-century evaluations. Hawthorne's reputation appears secure, yet his work is still the subject of significant critical controversy. Reviews by Hawthorne's contemporaries take up the first section of The Recognition of Nathaniel Hawthorne--including an early review that predicted future greatness for the then-anonymous author of Fanshawe, and important pieces by Duyckinck, Longfellow, Poe, Melville, and Lowell. These estimates reveal many...