When Hawthorne died in 1864, he left in manuscript three unfinished romances which, when afterward published by his heirs, were given the arbitrary titles of Doctor Grimshawe's Secret, Septimius Felton, and The Dolliver Romance. Doctor Grimshawe's Secret represents Hawthorne's attempt to write an “English romance” out of his own experiences in England during his residence there from 1853 to 1858.
