Reading path
Twice-Told Tales
The young republic told stories before it wrote novels. In its villages something is always slightly wrong: a bridegroom walks into the forest at night, a minister will not remove his black veil, a scrivener at a Wall Street window would prefer not to. From Irving's haunted Hudson valley to a Klondike so cold that fire itself fails, the American story begins here, in gossip, sermon, hoax and nightmare. These are the tales the country told itself twice, then could not stop telling.
In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.
The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.
The route
- 1. Rip Van WinkleWashington Irving, 1819
- 2. The Legend of Sleepy HollowWashington Irving, 1820
- 3. The Minister's Black VeilNathaniel Hawthorne, 1836
- 4. Young Goodman BrownNathaniel Hawthorne, 1837
- 5. The Fall of the House of UsherEdgar Allan Poe, 1839
- 6. The Masque of the Red DeathEdgar Allan Poe, 1842
- 7. The Tell-Tale HeartEdgar Allan Poe, 1843
- 8. The BirthmarkNathaniel Hawthorne, 1843
- 9. Bartleby the ScrivenerHerman Melville, 1853
- 10. Tales of a Wayside InnHenry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1863
- 11. The Celebrated Jumping FrogMark Twain, 1865
- 12. An Occurrence at Owl Creek BridgeAmbrose Bierce, 1890
- 13. The Yellow WallpaperCharlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892
- 14. To Build a FireJack London, 1902
- 15. The Gift of the MagiO. Henry, 1905