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The Wives of the Dead

Nathaniel Hawthorne

First published 1851
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story

Two women, the wives of brothers who were killed within days of each other, are comforting each other and staying in the same house. They go to bed but sleep badly; separately, each one receives a visit from a messenger telling her that her husband isn't dead, but it's left unclear whether either or both of them is dreaming.

First published (signed "F.") in The Token, 1832.

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
1851 The Snow-Image, and Other Tales Henry G. Bohn Collection 146
January 1852 Cover The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales Ticknor, Reed, and Fields Collection 228
1950 Selected Tales and Sketches Rinehart Collection |3
1962 Cover Hawthorne's Short Stories Dodd, Mead & Co. Collection |28
1963 Cover The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories Signet / New American Library Collection
1968 Cover The Birthmark and Other Stories Scholastic Book Services Collection
1968 The Modern Tradition: An Anthology of Short Stories Little, Brown Anthology |1
1968 Cover The Birthmark and Other Stories Scholastic Book Services Collection
1970 Cover Selected Tales and Sketches Holt, Rinehart and Winston Collection 18
1974 The Snow-Image and Uncollected Tales Ohio State University Press Collection |14
1982 Cover Tales and Sketches The Library of America Omnibus 61
1987 Cover Selected Tales and Sketches Penguin Books (US) Collection 22
2007 Tales and Sketches The Library of America Omnibus |61
December 2011 Cover The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Volume 4 Leonaur Ltd Collection
December 2011 Cover The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Volume 4 Leonaur Ltd Collection
August 2012 Cover The Oxford Book of American Short Stories Oxford University Press Anthology 60