Twice-Told Tales is a collection of short stories. It contains numerous short tales by Hawthrone for children. Stories such as “The Gray Champion”, “The May-Pole of Marymount”, “The Gentle Boy”, and “Endicott and the Red Cross” reflect Hawthorne’s moral insight and his lifelong interest in the history of Puritan New England. Among other tales are the allegorical “The Ambitious Guest”, “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Wakefield”, psychological explorations of sin and guilt “Howe’s Masquerade”, a ghostly legend set in Boston just prior to the American Revolution and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, an allegorical search for the Fountain of Youth.
