So Emerson as you probably already know is in the main an essayist. He did write poetry (most of it not great) and kept wonderful journals, but the lectures and the essays are the place to go.
His lectures are great; he was known as a fine orator, in part because of his ministry training. The ones to try for sure are "The American Scholar" (and yes, absolutely about academic pursuits in the United States and breaking influence from Continental/English patterns and mentors, so interesting for that reason); and "The Divinity School Address" which gives you an idea of the complicated intersections for intellectuals who, like Emerson, were from a religious tradition but also transcendental thinkers whose views sounded to others nearly atheistic.
The really wonderful essays are: "Self-Reliance" (just wonderfully inspiring as well as emblematic for that period of thought): "The Over-Soul", and perhaps the short essays in the volume "Nature" (not to be confused with a later essay "Nature" in the second collection of essays).
Hope that's helpful!
For Hawthorne, I highly recommend the short stories ("Young Goodman Brown", "The Birth Mark", "The Minister's Black Veil", "Rappaccini's Daughter") and The Blithedale Romance (one of my favorite novels). I was never much interested in The Scarlett Letter after reading it the first time, and his other works have some wonderful offerings.
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Date: 2008-06-27 07:47 pm (UTC)His lectures are great; he was known as a fine orator, in part because of his ministry training. The ones to try for sure are "The American Scholar" (and yes, absolutely about academic pursuits in the United States and breaking influence from Continental/English patterns and mentors, so interesting for that reason); and "The Divinity School Address" which gives you an idea of the complicated intersections for intellectuals who, like Emerson, were from a religious tradition but also transcendental thinkers whose views sounded to others nearly atheistic.
The really wonderful essays are: "Self-Reliance" (just wonderfully inspiring as well as emblematic for that period of thought): "The Over-Soul", and perhaps the short essays in the volume "Nature" (not to be confused with a later essay "Nature" in the second collection of essays).
Hope that's helpful!
For Hawthorne, I highly recommend the short stories ("Young Goodman Brown", "The Birth Mark", "The Minister's Black Veil", "Rappaccini's Daughter") and The Blithedale Romance (one of my favorite novels). I was never much interested in The Scarlett Letter after reading it the first time, and his other works have some wonderful offerings.