Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, set in pre-revolutionary America, is one of a country lad, named Robin, who comes to town to seek his fortune by way of his connection with a distant kinsman, Major Molineux. In this clever tale, in which Robin seeks to locate the home of the Major, the lad is exposed to the vices and threats that a town represents to a naive country boy. Confronted by greed, prostitution, pride and unnamed evil, Robin finds himself unable to understand what is occurring about him and his inability to locate his kinsman.

Contrasting both innocence and worldliness, good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, and the value of independence over dependence, Hawthorne sets the stage for an ending that surprises both Robin and the reader. The story is highly symbolic and complex, with layers of meaning that encompass both the coming-of-age maturation of a single character in Robin and the maturation of a nation in the fledgling USA.

I remember studying this story when in high school and find it holds up marvelously after so many years.

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