1.When I finished this story, I found it hard to care about it.
It is my least favorite of Hawthorne's books.
The characters were mostly unlikable
the plodding plot fattened up with many pages of useless description that added nothing.
It was a relief to be done with it,
an achievement that can only be attributed to
my stubborn refusal to stop reading once engaged, no matter how annoying the material. :o) It does feel irreverent to be trashing Nathaniel Hawthorne.
But time would be better spent reading his other masterpieces.(less)