Doctor Grimshawe's Secret: a Romance

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret in 1861, but he never considered the work finished and did not publish it before his death. It was published posthumously in 1883, by Hawthorne’s son, Julian. Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret, according to literature historians, contains more autobiographical material than any of Hawthorne's other writings. One of the principal topics is Hawthorne’s unresolved feelings about his childhood guardian, whose character is represented by Dr. Grimshawe, a spider-cultivating eccentric. The central motif (i.e., the "secret") of the book is an all-encompassing spider web.

The Grimshawe name, probably learned when Hawthorne spent extensive time in England (he was the American consul in Liverpool for four years), was apparently picked because he felt that it fit the grim and foreboding character of the central character (i.e., Hawthorne’s guardian.) Thus neither the name nor the novel appear to have anything to do with members of the Grimshaw famil