Nathaniel Hawthorne:
(Salem, July 4, 1804 – Concord, May 18, 1864).
American writer and diplomat.
His oeuvre consists of novels and short stories, most of which are set in the colonial period of the United States. The themes of his work encompass the ethical problems of sin, punishment, and atonement. His magnum opus is The Scarlet Letter.
I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.
There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.
In this sentence, “lighted on” means “come upon” or “discover by chance,” not “illuminated.”
Hawthorne is saying:
> ‘At no other time of year does unexpectedly finding a warm, sunny, pleasant place affect one’s mood as strongly as it does in October.’
The pleasure is heightened by contrast:
October brings cooler weather, shorter days, and fading vegetation, so a sheltered patch of sunshine feels especially welcome and emotionally uplifting.
Author and origin 📚:
The sentence is by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864).
It comes from his personal journals, published posthumously as:
> “Passages from the American Note-Books” (1868)
The collection was edited and published by his wife, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne. It is often shortened in citations to “The American Notebooks”.
Thus, it is ‘a notebook or journal observation rather than a line from one of Hawthorne’s novels’. Minor differences in punctuation may appear among editions.
