The Lily’s Quest

The Lily’s Quest is one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s shorter pieces, originally published in his Twice Told Tales collection. The story is a brief allegory in the parable mode that several of his shorter pieces worked in. The Lily of the title is the central female character whose quest provides the structural anchor for the wider story, with the central premise involving her search for a particular kind of place or experience that she has been pursuing.

Hawthorne uses the allegorical framework to develop the kind of moral material that distinguishes his best shorter fiction. The Lily’s quest, the various trials and complications she encounters across the narrative, and the eventual resolution of her search all work in the parable register that Hawthorne’s shorter allegories reliably delivered.

The story is brief and well suited to a single reading. For readers coming to Hawthorne through The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, The Lily’s Quest shows him in a more directly allegorical mode. For students of nineteenth century American literature or of Hawthorne’s wider catalogue, the piece is worth knowing.