Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, this it overflows upon the outward world.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
The book, if you would see anything in it, requires to be read in the clear, brown, twilight atmosphere in which it was written; if opened in the sunshine, it is apt to look exceedingly like a volume of blank pages.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that understanding a book requires the right context and atmosphere for reading.
Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes that a book's true essence and meaning can only be appreciated when read in the specific atmosphere in which it was created. If approached carelessly, like in bright sunshine, the text may seem meaningless or dull, akin to blank pages, highlighting the importance of setting and mood in the reading experience.
Themes
ReadingAtmosphereUnderstandingContextLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club meeting, to explain why setting affects interpretation.
More from Nathaniel Hawthorne
All quotes →A bodily disease which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.
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All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent.
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There is so much wretchedness in the world, that we may safely take the word of any mortal professing to need our assistance; and, even should we be deceived, still the good to ourselves resulting from a kind act is worth more than the trifle by which we purchase it.
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Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart! Else it may be their miserable fortune, when some mightier touch than their own may have awakened all her sensibilities, to be reproached even for the calm content, the marble image of happiness, which they will have imposed upon her as the warm reality.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
The thing you set your mind on is the thing you ultimately become.
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