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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

The Marble Faun — Complete Edition

Or, The Romance of Monte Beni

by Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804–1864

The book, and the century it came out of.

Four young people in Rome — an American sculptor, a copyist, a dark woman with a past, and an Italian count who may not be entirely human — and a death on the Tarpeian Rock that binds them. Hawthorne’s last completed novel came out of two years in Italy, and readers pestered him so persistently about the count’s ears that he added a postscript refusing to explain. Illustrated with 37 full-page plates — paintings by Inness, Elder and Brown among them.

Four individuals, in whose fortunes we should be glad to interest the reader, happened to be standing in one of the saloons of the sculpture-gallery in the Capitol at Rome.
The first sentence of The Marble Faun — Complete Edition
A note on this edition

The Marble Faun — Complete Edition, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 440 pages
Reading time
about 9 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501773615
The plates

37 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Roman Campagna, George Inness
Roman Campagna George Inness 1858
Soleil levant dans les montagnes de la Sabine, Federico Cortese
Soleil levant dans les montagnes de la Sabine Federico Cortese 1858
II Penseroso, Thomas Cole
II Penseroso Thomas Cole 1845
A bull attacked by a dog in an Italian landscape, Hendrik Voogd
A bull attacked by a dog in an Italian landscape Hendrik Voogd 1832
Terrace near Amalfi, Thomas Fearnley
Terrace near Amalfi Thomas Fearnley 1833
View of Palermo, Thomas Fearnley
View of Palermo Thomas Fearnley 1833
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Marble Faun — Complete Edition as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Marble Faun — Complete Edition as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Marble Faun — Complete Edition, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501773615, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Marble Faun — Complete Edition?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Nathaniel Hawthorne's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 440 pages, which is roughly about 9 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
The Marble Faun — Complete Edition
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