"The Scarlet Letter" is a 19th-century romance novel written by the great American author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Set in the restrictive New England Puritan society of Salem and Boston, Massachusetts, the novel starts out with a lengthy chapter describing how the book came about. A narrator describes how he found a certain piece of cloth, finely embroidered in gold with the letter "A." The listener will discover that the letter was a mark of disgrace and punishment for one woman who had been accused of adultery at a previous time.
The story of Hester Prynne and the scarlet letter she was forced to wear doesn't begin until after this initial chapter, which Hawthorne labels as the "Preamble."
Early in the novel, Hester Prynne and her infant daughter, Pearl, appear as they are led from the town prison and subjected to ridicule and punishment by the townspeople.
Hester has borne Pearl out of wedlock, and the town wants to know the father of the child, since Hester's husband was thought to have been previously lost at sea. The remainder of the story is an examination of Hester, her story, the two men in her life and an examination into the nature of sin itself.
Insightful readers and listeners will discover that the novel is a deep examination of Boston society and Puritan hypocrisy of that time as well as the people within Hester's community.
Who comes out on top, and whether there is any hope of retribution and eventual salvation is a question the listener must reserve for the novel.
Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. It is interesting to note that one of his ancestors, John Hathorne, had served as one of the judges at the infamous Salem Witch Trials in 1692. To remind himself of his family's part in that part of American history, Hawthorne added the "w" to his name, which served as a reminder of his familial connection to witchcraft.
Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine, where he met Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became interested in Transcendentalism as an outgrowth of his friendships with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller.
Among Hawthorne's works are: "The Blithedale Romance," "The Marble Faun," "The House of the Seven Gables" and numerous short stories.
He is regarded as one of the greats in early American literature. Herman Melville, of "Moby Dick" fame, dubbed him the "American Shakespeare". Hawthorne died in May, 1864 at his home in Concord, Massachusetts.
"A satisfying re-reading. This time around (my 3rd or 4th) I recognized more than before what a very strange book this is. It's realism with an extremely strong undertow of the supernatural--perhaps that is what is meant by "a romance," Hawthorne's label for The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne has here invented or found a great array of symbols and signs (Hester's letter, her daughter Pearl, sunshine and shade, the forest, the scaffold, a rosebush, a brook) that carry an uncanny, frightening charge. As a writer, I was fascinated by the fact that the novel is almost entirely summary and exposition and abstraction--and yet it is so humanly moving. My edition had a number of Hawthorne's more famous short stories, such as "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister's Black Veil," included, which extended the experience very nicely."
—
Pamela (5 out of 5 stars)