The Scarlet Letter (Bantam Classics) (original 1850; edition 1981)

I honestly feel cheated that I was never required to read this novel in either high school or college. While I found the first chapter about how the author came upon the story of Hester Prynne while working at the custom's house terribly dull, I absolutely loved the novel that followed.

The Scarlet Letter is a beautiful pairing of contrasts. While Hester is marked as an adulterer--a sinner, she gives freely of her time and talents to her community. While she is forced to wear the drab attire of the Puritans, her A for adulterer is beautifully crafted. While she is well known for her sin, she seems to hold the sins of others in a secret place in her heart. While she married for stability, she feel victim to her passions. All of these elements work to make a beautifully complex character the reader cannot help but empathize with.

One of the themes of the novel I most identified with is the hypocrisy of the townspeople. While many of them have committed a similar sin they are happy to point their fingers at Hester and judge her. The only exception to this rule is the young woman who waits with others outside the jailhouse door as Hester appears before the public. She symbolizes the minority thought in the beginning and in the end of the novel. Her willingness to look at the world from a different perspective provides a window into Hawthorne's analysis of society.

There are so many layers to this novel, that I wish I had taken more notes, but I was too swept up in the narrative to catalog all the depth that The Scarlet Letter provides. Definitely worth more than one read! ( )

I really don't like this book. ( )

On Nov 20, 1946, said: "Reading in The Scarlet Letter, which is pretty good." On Nov. 21 I said: "Finished Scarlet Letter." But no other comment! I remember I was reading the book when I saw at the Public Library Eric Savereid's book Not So Wild a Dream, which had just come out. I assumed that the title came from The Scarlet Letter, since that phrase I knew was therein. When I finally read the Savereid book, on Sep 14, 1988, I learned the title did not come from The Scarlet Letter, but from Norman Corwin, who probably did not know the words had been written by Hawthorne long before and put in the mouth of the sinner concerning his feeling for the girl he seduced.. ( )

This book was very artfully written in a sense that the symbols added to the characterization of people and the A becomes a reoccurring theme that adds an eerie and sixth sense quality to the book. The suffering of the individuals in the book is real and can almost be felt by the reader. I really enjoyed the moral of the story though, which was that professing to your wrong doings is better than keeping them inside. The pain that we put ourselves through is much greater than the pain our peers can do to us, if we have a strong conscience.

The Scarlet Letter is the story of Hester Prynne who has committed the sin of adultery, in 17th century. She becomes pregnant by her lover, and her punishment is to stand before the people of the town in public disgrace and to always wear The Scarlet Letter attached to her chest as a reminder of her shame. She lives a solitary life with her daughter Pearl who is also ostracised from the rest of the community. Great book; I think almost every teenage girl has read it in their lives, too!