On Hawthorne

I've always had problems reading Hawthorne: I've started The House of Seven Gables no less than seven times, but could never make it past the first chapter without falling into a doze. I'd never tackled any of his short stories before taking the Coursera "Fantasy and Science Fiction" course, and to my surprise, I'm enjoying what I'm reading. I always thought of Hawthorne as a bit stuffy and stultifying, but the stories are rich, voluptuous and risky. "Rappancini's Daughter" is my favourite so far. Hawthorne's prose is more refined and the setting is more romantic, but it reminded me a bit of Clark Ashton Smith's (much more lurid) "The Garden of Adompha". Smith has a bad case of Science Fictiony Name Syndrome going on, but it's worth it for the extreme purpleness of the prose.

A formula to think about:
Lovecraft + sex - excessive Euro-worshipping and erudition = Clark Ashton Smith.

Here's the fantastic cover illustration for "The Garden of Adompha", done in the inimitable Weird Tales style: