And what so tedious as a twice-told tale?The book was published by the American Stationers' Company on March 6, 1837; its cover price was $1.

After noting the initial expenses for publishing had not been met, he complained: "Surely the book was puffed enough to meet with sale.

Editor John L. O'Sullivan suggested Hawthorne buy back unsold copies of Twice-Told Tales so that they could be reissued through a different publisher.

In a new preface, Hawthorne wrote that the stories "may be understood and felt by anybody, who will give himself the trouble to read it, and will take up the book in a proper mood.

"[12] About a week after the publication of the book, Hawthorne sent a copy to the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, his classmate from Bowdoin College.

In his 14-page critique in the April issue of the North American Review, Longfellow praised the book as a work of genius.

"[15] For his review of the second edition, Longfellow noted that Hawthorne's writing "is characterized by a large proportion of feminine elements, depth and tenderness of feeling, exceeding purity of mind.

"[16] After reading Twice-Told Tales, Herman Melville wrote to Evert Augustus Duyckinck that the stories weren't meaty enough.

"[19] Edgar Allan Poe wrote a well-known, two-part review of the second edition of Twice-Told Tales, published in the April and May 1842 issues of Graham's Magazine.

[22] In 1963, United Artists released a horror trilogy film titled Twice-Told Tales, with content very loosely adapted from three Hawthorne stories.

The film is regarded as a classic of sorts in the field of low-budget Hollywood horror, with Vincent Price, Sebastian Cabot, and Beverly Garland performing.