Project Gutenberg 2005-07-01 Public domain in the USA. 170 Hawthorne, Nathaniel 1804 1864 The Ancestral Footstep (fragment) Outlines of an English Romance Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team "The Ancestral Footstep" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an unfinished romance written in the late 19th century. The narrative revolves around Middleton, an American descendant of an ancient English family, who embarks on a quest to uncover family secrets linked to a blood-stained footprint left at his ancestral home. As he travels through England, the themes of identity, ancestry, and the haunting echoes of the past are interwoven with his encounters, particularly with an enigmatic old man and a mysterious young lady, Alice. At the start of the story, Middleton reflects on his travels through the idyllic English countryside, filled with hope and excitement in his search for his ancestral home, while simultaneously contemplating the odds against him. His journey introduces him to various characters, including an intriguing old man with whom he shares a connection, and a young woman whose presence fascinates him. As Middleton navigates these relationships, he becomes increasingly aware of the weight of history that surrounds him, including the dark legacies of a family divided by conflict and betrayal. The opening establishes a richly atmospheric setting that foreshadows the revelations and conflicts that Middleton faces as he delves deeper into the mysteries of his lineage. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 58.8 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read. en American literature PS Text Browsing: History - American Browsing: Literature 212203 2025-06-04T06:12:05.237794 text/html 212024 2025-01-11T03:37:22.729353 text/html 156270 2025-06-04T06:12:11.694771 application/epub+zip 159078 2025-06-04T06:12:08.457748 application/epub+zip 145267 2025-06-04T06:12:07.136761 application/epub+zip 315525 2025-06-04T06:12:14.151715 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 303560 2025-06-04T06:12:10.948786 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 273194 2022-09-04T10:22:39.042705 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 198603 2025-06-04T06:12:04.939787 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 198926 2014-09-24T19:24:24 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 74567 2014-09-24T19:28:00 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 198916 2014-09-24T19:24:18 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 74543 2014-09-24T19:28:00 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 19104 2025-06-04T06:12:14.300727 application/rdf+xml 16211 2025-06-04T06:12:07.791777 image/jpeg 4036 2025-06-04T06:12:07.420771 image/jpeg 156185 2025-06-04T06:12:05.257791 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia