Mosses from an Old Manse is Nathaniel Hawthorneβs second story collection, first published in 1846 in two volumes and featuring sketches and tales written over a span of more than twenty years, including such classics as βYoung Goodman Brown,β βThe Birthmark,β and βRappacciniβs Daughter.β Herman Melville deemed Hawthorne the American Shakespeare, and Henry James wrote that his early tales possess βthe element of simple genius, the quality of imagination. That is the real charm of Hawthorneβs writingβthis purity and spontaneity and naturalness of fancy.β