ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the cultural associations and literary connections that link Inchbald and Hawthorne so as to describe a common intellectual climate in which their experimental narrative could arise, in parallel development and not merely coincidentally, on each side of the Atlantic Ocean. It examines how each author's works fit into, respectively, British and American versions of Romanticism. The chapter touches briefly on the chivalric romance as a common source for both writers and on the moral tale as another possible link. It moves to a discussion of Inchbald's reputation in Britain and in America – as an actor, a playwright and a prose writer – to establish the extent of Inchbald's international reputation. A Simple Story, Nature and Art, The Scarlet Letter and The Marble Faun, as Romantic moral romances, borrow the features from the chivalric romance.
