a book
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne · 2002 · 244 pages
Hailed by Henry James as "the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country," Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter reaches to our nation's historical and moral roots for the material of great tragedy. Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth.
With The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne became the first American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic, a masterful exploration of humanity's unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride.
With The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne became the first American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic, a masterful exploration of humanity's unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride.
recommended by 4 people
sourced from public statements
John Irving
“Sexual condemnation, declaring sexual differences weird or wrong — will it never end? Why is the most private of human passions subjected to public scorn? In the U.S., the uptightness of the Puritans still emanates like a poisonous gas. This is the first novel that served as a sexual beacon for me, that illuminated the hateful fountain of sexual disapproval.”↗
Harold Bloom
“Hester Prynne remains the grandest, most poignant, and most enduring female character in American literature. She is our truest feminist in that she will not yield to the Puritan morality that condemns her and her heroic sexuality.”↗
Harry Khachatrian
“I’ve read all of these, they’re all great books”↗
