{"product_id":"9781605012902","title":"The Marble Faun, or The Romance of Monte Beni","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Marble Faun\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e (1860) was the last of the four major romances by Nathaniel Hawthorne. After writing \u003ci\u003eThe Blithedale Romance\u003c\/i\u003e in 1852, Hawthorne, approaching fifty, turned away from publication and obtained a political appointment as American Consul in Liverpool, England, an appointment which he held from 1853 to 1857. In 1858, Hawthorne and his wife Sophia Peabody moved to Italy and became essentially tourists for a year and a half. \u003ci\u003eThe Marble Faun\u003c\/i\u003e is Hawthorne's most unusual romance, and possibly one of the strangest major works of American fiction. Writing on the eve of the American Civil War, Hawthorne set his story in a fantastical Italy. The romance mixes elements of a fable, pastoral, gothic novel, and travel guide. The climax comes less than halfway through the story, and Hawthorne intentionally fails to answer many of the reader's questions about the characters and the plot. (Complaints about this led Hawthorne to add a facetious Postscript to the second edition, wherein he continues to fail - purposefully - to answer most of these questions.)\u003cbr\u003e   - Excerpted from \u003ci\u003eWikipedia, \u003c\/i\u003ethe free encyclopedia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MobileReference","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47165052027120,"sku":"9781605012902","price":0.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781605012902_p0.jpg?v=1763829006","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781605012902","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}