"A Virtuoso's Collection" is a short story by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was first published in Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion , I (May 1842), 193-200, and later included as the final story in the compilation Mosses from an Old Manse .
The story references a number of historical and mythical figures, items, beasts, books, etc. as part of a museum collection. Some scholars regard the real-life museum of the East India Marine Society in Salem, Massachusetts, as a model for Hawthorne's fictional museum. [1] The narrator is led through the collection by the virtuoso himself who turns out to be the Wandering Jew.
Hawthorne’s story combines elements of fantasy and satire, presenting the narrator’s first‑person perspective to convey the extraordinary artifacts in the virtuoso’s collection. Scholars have noted that the story reflects on human curiosity and the desire to classify and possess unusual or rare objects, while also offering subtle moral commentary. [2]
