The Scarlet Letter
Publisher Description
An Apple Books Classic edition.
Hester Prynne lives in infamy. After committing adultery and bearing a child with a man whose name she refuses to divulge, the heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel is forced to wear a scarlet A to mark her shame for all to see.
Hawthorne’s American classic reflects the Puritan mindset of Boston in the 1600s, where public humiliation was acceptable punishment for a woman who bucked the norms. Never mind that Hester’s husband was widely believed to have died at sea and that Hester and her daughter are living a quiet life of good deeds in their little cottage outside town. Someone wants revenge-and will stop at nothing to get it.
The Scarlet Letter incorporates supernatural elements with historical fiction. It’s a dark tale of sin and redemption with an unforgettable heroine whose story continues to fascinate readers and inspire film adaptations.
Customer Reviews
A tale of America
As D.H. Lawrence in his analysis of The Scarlet Letter wrote, it is a tale of the great A (America) however I do disagree and firmly believe that Hawthorne touched upon what it means to be a solitary woman, an alone mother, and the strains of society on an outcast. The style of the book (romanticism) and the character development of Hester didn’t impress me all in all a 2 out of 5.