Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804–1864 · American novelist & short-story writer

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a central figure of the American Romance tradition, author of The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). The Marble Faun (1860), written after years in Italy, was his last completed novel; in it the man-child Donatello is transformed by guilt and sorrow — the context in which this line about time’s lingering shadow is spoken.

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“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind”

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