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'Villette' and 'The Marble Faun.'

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From: Studies in the Novel
Date: 19930922
Author:Wills, Jack C.

Similarities between 'Villette' and 'The Marble Faun' suggest that Nathaniel Hawthorne may have read Charlotte Bronte's novel and used it as a model for his book. Similarities between characters, settings, symbols, the occurrence of the supernatural and plot structure in the two books suggests at least a subconscious use of Bronte's book on Hawthorne's part. Hawthorne discussed Bronte's novels with friends, but there is no record of his ever having read 'Villette.'

Commenting on Nathaniel Hawthorne's problem of casting an imaginative glow over bleak New England, "so provokingly raw and ...

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