The Scarlet Letter

Just look at a portrait of him as a young man, note the noble brow, the handsome features, the sensitivity, how romantic......... Curl up with this book and let Nathaniel tell you his tale in his beautiful poetic language . This is a book to be read quietly, alone, not in an airport lounge or on the subway, but preferably in a beautiful garden or sunroom with the windows open. Let the beauty of his language flow over you and transport you back in time. It is over 200 years since Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachusetts, his great great grandfather officiated at the Salem Witch Trials. He was both disturbed and intrigued by his ancestry. One day when working at The Custom House in Salem to make ends meet as a struggling young author, he discovered in one of the upstairs rooms some dusty old boxes, on opening them he found them to contain relics from the past, long since forgotten. Yellowing documents and an intriguing piece of embroidery, a scrap of faded and torn material with the letter A embroidered on it. He picked it up, and while wondering what it was, he held it up to his chest, and at that moment he claims to have felt a burning sensation which caused him to drop the piece of cloth. It gave him inspiration for this story along with documents he found about a woman called Hester Prynne. The scene he sets so vividly is somewhere around 350 years ago 150 years before he was born. In a time when behavior to which we can hardly be bothered to raise an eyebrow was in that day considered a punishable sin. A disgrace for life. Branded by having to wear a scarlet letter on the chest for all to see. It is a feminist novel, (Nathaniel Hawthorne supported women's rights). Briefly, the protagonist Hester Prynne has a child from an adulterous relationship and refuses to name the father. Her husband a physician much older than she has never been a "proper" husband to her so she had looked elsewhere for love. The husband vows to find the father of the child, and in exchange for her freedom makes Hester swear she will never disclose who her husband is. Her husband being a physician quickly deduces who the father is from the way he is wasting away under his burden of guilt. He sets about a long period of torment of the young man of which Hester is aware but can say nothing because of her promise. Finally she has had enough and decides to come clean, shaming the devil, (her husband) and redeeming the young man. I do not want to spoil anything by divulging the name of the father of the child in case you do not know. This is such a simple and brief account it would make Nathaniel wince to read it. There is so much more to the story. It states in the blurb that it is a psychological novel before there was a science called psychology. The way the characters in the story interact with each other, the symbolism, the different values of the day from Nathaniel's day, and then again to this day. The religious aspect in Puritan times, the emotional ups and downs as you empathize with first one and then another of the characters. It is a wonderful story and well deserving of its position as one of America's great classics.

The Scarlet Letter is truly one of literature's greatest triumphs, its characters and themes reverberating in our collective consciousness more than 150 years after its initial publication. Few novels inspire as much contemplation and feeling on the part of the reader. Hester Prynne, American fiction's first and foremost female heroine continues to haunt this world, inspiring a never-ending stream of scholarly debate. Even in our less puritanical age, some doubtless see her as a villainously great temptress, but to me she is a remarkably brave hero indeed. Her sin is known to all, and she never runs away from it, bearing the scarlet letter on her bosom bravely for all to see; she realizes the true measure of that sin, fretting constantly over the effects it will have on young Pearl, remaining steadfast in her beliefs while at the same time envisioning a new society where women and men can exist on more equal terms, free of the stultifyingly harsh punishments meted out on even the most repentant of souls by Puritanism. She shows her noble spirit by refusing to name her partner in sin and goes so far as to allow the ruthless Roger Chillingworth to torment the man she loves deeply enough to protect him for all time. Little Pearl is somewhat of an enigma, truly manifesting traits of both the imp and the little angel; her questions about the letter her mother wears and the minister who continually holds his hand against his heart reflect an insight that amazes this reader. Chillingworth is a thoroughly black-hearted man; I can certainly understand the blow he sustained as a result of Hester's sin, but his actions and thirst for prolonged revenge on the so-called perpetrator of the wrong he suffered can only be described as roguish and unpalatable. Of course, the most complex character in the novel (and literature as a whole) is the good minister Arthur Dimmsdale. One is compelled to both like him and despise him. He is basically a good man and an unquestionably fine soldier in the army of the Lord, winning many souls to God with his impassioned sermons. He is more aware than anyone else of his sinful nature, and he punishes himself quite brutally in private in a useless attempt to make up for the public ignominy he lacks the moral courage to call upon himself with a public profession of his deed. Dimmsdale is a coward and a hypocrite. At one critical moment in the latter pages of the novel, he blames Hester for his state of misery, and it is that comment in particular that makes this tragic character a man I can only commiserate with to a limited degree. Even at the penultimate moment of the novel, as he finally bears the mark of his shame and guilt for all his parishioners to see, the very men and women who have viewed him as a saintly man of God rather than the brigand he knows himself to be, he does not openly confess-his words and deeds do make plain the secret of his heart, but it is his lack of a thoroughly bold confession that causes some of his most devoted followers, so Hawthorne tells us, to blindly judge his final act as an illustrative parable on the danger of sin threatening each member of his congregation rather than an admission of guilt and self-condemnation.

It is always difficult to share your thoughts about classics. Especially when you’ve struggled with some aspects of the book. At least this is the way it is for me. I don’t think my critical opinion holds any value on a global scale. Legendary books will be read irrespective of my subjective impressions. Still, on the other hand, there is no harm in adding one more opinion to the vast number of opinions already expressed about the story. I can’t say that I didn’t like “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I did like the eloquent, dreamy prose that transported me into a different reality. The image of the seventeenth-century Puritan society the author draws in the story is fascinating. The main issue that kept me from fully enjoying the book is that it didn’t show me who Hester Prynne really was. It felt like there is a photograph of the main character with a description of how she looks and what her daily activities are on the back. Hester Prynne lacks substance, and without it, it’s hard to relate to anyone, real or fictional. My assumption is that the author, being a product of his time, simply didn’t have a broad enough knowledge of women and the inner workings of their minds. The fact that the emotional sufferings of Arthur Dimmesdale are described vividly and in detail somewhat gives weight to this theory. Although inarguably poetic, the author’s style is rather heavy. Some sentences are a Kindle page long. I’m not a fan of short sentences without adverbs and adjectives. For me, language is like clay, from which you can create an infinite number of forms. And still, reading “The Scarlet Letter” was challenging. The introductory chapter was especially taxing, and I was relieved that the author changed the style a little in the main part of the book. Usually, I have so much to say about what I thought and felt reading the book. In this case, I am at a loss what to share. The chapters dedicated to Arthur Dimmesdale are piercing, showing a person torn by his passions that contradict society's rules. He is unlikeable, weak, and self-centered. The author has managed to demonstrate how the man’s emotional struggles led to his physical decline. Hester’s daughter Pearl also is an intriguing character, but to the readers, she remains an enigma, much like her mother. Roger Chillingworth adds spice to the story. But since it’s already packed with drama, I failed to appreciate the edge he represents. All in all, the book hasn’t left me indifferent. It has also left me with too many unanswered questions. It’s not a bad thing to be left wondering “what if”. But with “The Scarlet Letter”, the questions are “What happened in the main characters’ lives?”, “How did they meet?”, “What did they feel about this and that?”. And these are too profound questions not to get even a glimpse of an answer to.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is certainly one of the most famous American novels of the 19th Century, and though maybe not as accessible as works from the likes of Twain or Steinbeck, it rightly belongs in the same realm of great American literature. The book begins with an introduction called Custom House. It can be skipped for all but the most enthusiastic readers of classic literature. The main story begins in a Puritan village in Massachusetts with a woman named Hester Prynne being forced to stand on a scaffold in front of a crowd as punishment for the sin that resulted in her child she is holding. She also must permanently wear a letter A as a mark for that sin. Hester continually refuses to disclose the name of her child's father. Back in prison she sees a doctor, a deformed man named Roger Chillingworth, who has a significant connection with her past unbeknownst to others in the village. Another man, a young frail minister named Arthur Dimmesdale, is also a significant character in the story in respect to his connection with Hester and his close but uneasy relationship with Chillingworth. Hester's daughter, Pearl, is an elfish mischievous child and becomes a symbol as much as an actual character; a symbol of Hester's past and hope for the future. Hester spends in the years afterward being a seamstress, doing charity, and eventually becoming an excepted if not beloved member of the community. The book deals with sin and redemption, religion and revenge in beautiful but often ambiguous ways. The story itself is simple, and the book is not long, but the inner emotions of characters are explored with rousing detail. The novel hardly ever meanders needlessly, though as I mentioned it's not the most (though certainly neither the least) accessible book, especially to an audience not well verse in classic literature. Do not be intimidated though because it's an experience well worth having. It's Hawthorne's masterpiece.

My favorite book ever but the book is so small it's hard to read

Good book and interesting

The Scarlet Letter was effective in achieving its purpose of portraying the downsides of Puritan society and values through keeping readers entertained with a captivating plot. The author wrote about Hester and Pearl in a way that helped them attain emotional sentiment from the readers. Also, Hawthorne showed the physical and psychological effects of having a guilty conscience by writing about what Hester and Dimmesdale had to endure to hide their sin. The author also successfully showed the hypocritical aspects of Puritan society in Boston, Massachusetts during the mid-seventeenth century. For example, Dimmesdale still remained a religious minister and role model for the rest of the townspeople even though he was responsible for a forbidden affair with Hester. A main purpose of The Scarlet Letter was to show that human beings can be misunderstood if they aren't allowed to have personal identities due to strict societal regulations. In this novel, the author, Hawthorne, portrayed the idea that Puritanism often lead to unjustified punishment, sometimes against the wrong person. Throughout the novel, he draws strong criticisms against Puritan values. The Scarlet Letter was ineffective in achieving its purpose of satisfying readers because it did not come to a significant conclusion at the end and some of the main characters didn't receive enough focus. The author could have more effectively showed how Pearl shaped her later adult life by stating more information throughout the novel about her early life experiences. This addition would have significantly improved the novel because Pearl was a significant character that deserved a stronger focus. At the end of the novel, none of the characters surfaced as a winner above the others. The Scarlet Letter would have been significantly better in achieving its purpose if the author had written more about Hester and Dimmesdale at the end of the novel. Hawthorne didn't write in detail about their time together at the end of the novel. Instead, the characters died rather quickly and readers didn't get a chance to delve further into their lives to see if they could live happily after overcoming the ordeal of their sins. The Scarlet Letter is a well-known classic American piece of literature. Hawthorne effectively conveyed to readers the downsides of Puritan society during the mid-seventeenth century and values through expressing the hardships characters such as Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl had to endure due to the society and time that they lived in. However, the novel was ineffective because it didn't achieve its purpose of satisfying readers. The ending of the novel seemed rushed and didn't show or symbolize enough. Also, some of the main characters, such as Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale, deserved more credit in order to further exemplify their significance and everything that they symbolized throughout the novel.

Difficult reading but an interesting story and a classic. I read it in high school, but it meant nothing to me. Now, as I’m in my “golden years,” it touched my heart. Hestor is a woman who faced contemporary challenges as a Puritan woman when this country was new with patience and perseverance. I admire her.

Já fiz outras compras internacionais na Amazon e nunca tive problema, mas dessa vez o pacote foi possivelmente extraviado e eu não recebi o livro na data correta. De qualquer forma, entrei em contato com o atendimento ao consumidor e eles me enviaram outro, que chegou uma semana antes do prazo. Quanto ao livro, é uma das edições mais bonitas que eu já vi. Ele é menor do que parece, mas tem um acabamento bem trabalhado, detalhes da capa em relevo e folhas brilhosas que parecem durar bastante. Estou encantada! Quero adquirir os outros da coleção também kkk

Let him that is without sin cast the first stone - if only those who point the finger were to heed this command! A tale both sad and salutory but with the promise of redemption.

Love this book. All the Chiltern Classic books are so beautiful. Great price and prompt delivery. Make a fabulous gift.

Livre que j'avais à lire pour la fac, mais c'est une très bonne surprise, le livre est BIEN!! Non vraiment c'est super! Lecture facile, anglais facile à comprendre, histoire prenante, suspens!! tout y est!

This book is awesome