HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel. The scarlet letter

Moonlight, in a familiar room, falling so white upon the carpet, and showing all its figures so distinctly, -- making every object so minutely visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibility, -- is a medium the most suitable for a romance-writer to get acquainted with his illusive guests. […] Thus, therefore, the floor of our familiar room has become a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other.