Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Group Read

Everyone is welcome to join us in a group read of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne was the great-great grandson of the Salem Witch Trials judge John Hathorne. Nathaniel felt much shame over the pain inflicted upon innocents by his puritan ancestors, and wrote The Scarlet Letter as a way to relieve that shame. It is a book following Hester Prynne, who must wear the Scarlet Letter A upon her breast as punishment for being an adultress.

I started out reading the Serial Reader edition of this book, but got a bit overwhelmed by the first chapter. So I started listening to an unabridged version of The Scarlet Letter from Audible:



Strangely, this version didn't have the annoying first chapter that I couldn't get through on Serial Reader. I'm a little confused. Is there a "complete uncut" version as well as an unabridged version? lol

Anyway, I'm enjoying the book so far, but I'll make sure other people are joining the thread before I start putting down my thoughts.

"The Custom House" sets the scene for the novel. It adds depth and background to the novel, although at first it seems unrelated. It is supposed to be the account of the man who runs the Salem Customs House in the early 19th century, and he finds documents relating to events in the 17th century. These earlier events become the basis of the story of the Scarlet Letter.

Part of the complexity of this novel is that of the 19th century viewpoint, looking back at the events of the 17th century. Add our own 21st century take, and there are a lot of layers here.

Well, "The Custom House" is exactly the chapter that was omitted by my "unabridged" audiobook. I tried hard to read it in serial reader, but didn't see the point of it and thus it bored me silly. Sometimes when I listen to something as an audiobook that I would normally find boring reading, I'm able to pick up on something that I wasn't able to in the physical reading. They are just two different skills to me - reading and listening - and they yield different results sometimes.

Anyway, thanks for the explanation of the importance of "The Custom House." Do you know why it may have been omitted from my "unabridged" audiobook? Was it added as a prelude after the original publication of the book?

>4 The_Hibernator: As far as I can tell, it was part of the original publication. From what I can gather from the Introduction to my Penguin edition, Hawthorne included this piece in the original because he felt that the novel itself was too "dark" and wanted to include something a bit lighter. Hawthorne himself worked at the Custom House. According to the endnotes in my edition, the Custom House piece was a satirical take on a popular piece at the time, Bishop Burnet's "A History of My Own Time."

If you can borrow a copy from the library with explanatory notes, it would probably be a great help. There are real 17th century people who are characters in the book, and references to real events, and my edition helped me to understand their context within the story.

I hated The Scarlet Letter when I read it in high school, some 50 years ago. For whatever reason, I kept my beat-up Signet paperback edition. A couple of years ago I read Hawthorne's A Blithedale Romance, and enjoyed it, so last year I decided to give The Scarlet Letter another go as an adult. I even bought this 2016 Penguin edition (only $8!), which made it feel like a new book to me :). It was a completely different experience for me reading it as an adult. IMHO this book is wasted on high school kids; I was hardly mature enough to understand all the nuances (historical, psychological, emotional) of Hawthorne's tale at 15 years old.

Well, already this thread is fascinating! I also read this as a teenager in high school and hated it. Even so, I bought the Penguin Deluxe Classics edition several years ago because I love those editions, and I loved the cover art:



The GR this year seems like a perfect time to give it another go. Looking forward to seeing what I think of it this time around.

I have also read that he needed to 'pad' the book for publication as it was considered too short. So he added The Custom House, written from his own experiences, and making his ancestor the persecutor of Hester in the past. It also gave him the chance to make it clear that he did not condone the way Hester was treated as he speaks about taking shame upon myself for their sakes due to the part his great-grandsire played in these events and in subsequent persecution of witches.

I started this yesterday. Finished The Custom House section. I felt it was a device akin to those used in other books where they are trying to present the fiction as fact, along the lines of "I found this dusty manuscript and let me tell you what I deciphered". It features in a number of books. I'm sure there is a precedent and expanation for it's appearance.

I just finished The Custom House section yesterday as well. Although a bit long, and we probably didn't need in-depth descriptions of his fellow Custom House officials, I found there were some little gems in there.
It was a particularly interesting way of quietly introducing Hester in a postitive light, to make it even more shocking when we find out what happened to her in her younger days.
When he first finds the scarlet letter, he assumes it is an ornamental article of dress and wonders what rank, honour and dignity were signified by it.
He also mentions that in her old age, Hester travelled the area as a voluntary nurse, doing whatever miscellaneous good she might.
But as he also mentions that he is ashamed of the part his ancestor played in the persecution of Hester, it leaves us wondering what can possibly have happened.
And I had a chuckle at the representation of government officials. It seems that not much has changed over time in that regard. Apologies to anyone who works in a government department but the stereotype is certainly out there and seems that it has been for some time.