THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE

FANSHAWE, AND SEPTIMIUS FELTON

With An Appendix Containing

THE ANCESTRAL FOOTSTEP

by

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

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THE ANCESTRAL FOOTSTEP:

OUTLINES OF AN ENGLISH ROMANCE.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

"Septimius Felton" was the outgrowth of a project, formed by Hawthorne
during his residence in England, of writing a romance, the scene of which
should be laid in that country; but this project was afterwards
abandoned, giving place to a new conception in which the visionary search
for means to secure an earthly immortality was to form the principal
interest. The new conception took shape in the uncompleted "Dolliver
Romance." The two themes, of course, were distinct, but, by a curious
process of thought, one grew directly out of the other: the whole history
constitutes, in fact, a chapter in what may be called the genealogy of a
romance. There remained, after "Septimius Felton" had been published,