The strong, dark women who live in Nathaniel Hawthorne's major romances invite us to view their author as sympathetic to what Nina Auerbach has called "the complex life of woman in culture". Hester Prynne, Zenobia, and Miriam all shine as "female representatives of the human creative and passionate forces". Indeed, Hawthorne's depiction of women and his attitude toward feminist ideas in the romances is strongly sympathetic. Because of this sensitivity, the negative presentation of the title character in the earlier children's story "Queen Christina," part of the Biographical Stories for Children collection, raises troubling questions about Hawthorne's handling of genre and gender.