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Loading... The Scarlet Letter (original 1850; edition 1961)by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Maxwell Geismar (Afterword)
Work detailsThe Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)
 speedy74 | May 16, 2013 |  I really don't like this book. (  ) katemo | May 16, 2013 | 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.. (  ) Schmerguls | May 14, 2013 | 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. NickiZ | May 1, 2013 | 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! aclemen1 | Apr 29, 2013 |
 No one who has taken up the Scarlet Letter will willingly lay it down till he has finished it; and he will do well not to pause, for he cannot resume the story where he left it. He should give himself up to the magic power of the style, without stopping to open wide the eyes of his good sense and judgment, and shake off the spell; or half the weird beauty will disappear like a dissolving view. To be sure, when he closes the book, he will feel very much like the giddy and bewildered patient who is just awaking from his first experiment of the effects of sulphuric ether. The soul has been floating or flying between earth and heaven, with dim ideas of pain and pleasure strangely mingled, and all things earthly swimming dizzily and dreamily, yet most beautiful, before the half shut eye. That the author himself felt this sort of intoxication as well as the willing subjects of his enchantment, we think, is evident in many pages of the last half of the volume. His imagination has sometimes taken him fairly off his feet. Is contained inThe Best Known Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Nathaniel Hawthorne Great Short Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Portable Hawthorne by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Complete Novels and Selected Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Nathaniel Hawthorne Collected Work of Nathaniel Hawthorne (ONE VOLUME EDITION) by Nathaniel Hawthorne Four Classic American Novels by Willard Thorp Four American Novels (The Scarlett Letter/ Moby Dick/ The Red Badge of Courage/ The Bridge of San Luis Rey) by Edward Fuller American Fiction by William Allan Neilson The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne Gramercy Classics: Nathanial Hawthorne by Nathaniel Hawthorne Fanshawe; The Scarlet Letter; The House of the Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne Three Complete Novels by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Seventh Edition: Volume B: 1820-1865 by Nina Baym The Scarlet Letter and Selected Tales (Penguin English Library) by Nathaniel Hawthorne Der scharlachrote Buchstabe / Die Blithedale-Maskerade by Nathaniel Hawthorne Is retold inHas the (non-series) sequelHas the adaptationThe Scarlet Letter (Penguin Readers, Level 2) by Nathaniel Hawthorne First Classics Illustrated: The Scarlet Letter by P. Craig Russell Is parodied inInspiredWhen She Woke by Hillary Jordan Red Letter Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks Has as a reference guide/companionHas as a studyNew Essays on 'The Scarlet Letter' (The American Novel) by Michael J. Colacurcio Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter: A Critical Resource Guide And Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Literary Ctriticism, 1950-2000 (Studies in American Literature) by Kimberly Free Muirhead Has as a student's study guide
References to this work on external resources.
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(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:37:50 -0400)
In 18th century Boston, a Puritan girl is condemned to wear the letter "A" for bearing an illegitimate daughter.
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30 editions of this book were published by Audible.com.
Penguin AustraliaThree editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.
Editions: 0142437263, 0143105442, 0141199458
Columbia University PressAn edition of this book was published by Columbia University Press.
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Wikipedia in English (5)
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! (