Recommended Reading

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Don, I agree with the Hawthorne stuff, though I would certainly add
The Blithedale Romance (for Utopias gone wrong) and Rappacinni's
Daughter (for rather perverse obsessions with unattainable, if not,
inanimate women).

As for Melville, despite what Wanda sez, The Confidence Man and Pierre:
or the _Ambiguities_ seem vital.

But let's not forget the even more influential John Buchan, especially
books like the justly spooky Witcherwood (or something like that) and the
one (I have long since forgotten the name) which is a very bizarre cross of
the Most Dangerous Game and the Lottery--quite formative stuff for the mind
of a young writer.

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