Hawthorne's characters here are weirdly fashioned, perhaps more so than the characters in any other story of his. Why for example did he make Mr. Bullfrog an effeminate, prissy little man who actively sought and found a bride so ravaged by age and experience that without her artificial replacement parts she would look like a witch, a hobgoblin, a gorgon? And why, after Mr. Bullfrog proved man enough to seek and bring back a wife, was he still so residually feminine that he could say the following, after toying with her curls: "Even your fair hand could not manage a curl more delicately than mine. I propose myself the pleasure of doing up your hair in papers every evening at the same time with my own."

As for Mrs. Bullfrog's supposedly being so suitable a wife, considering her money, her outward good looks (when all her parts&mdash...