Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (bargain edition typeset for the Kindle) Review
Is "The Scarlet Letter" worthy of being considered a classic? Why do some love it and some hate it? These are questions that played through my mind when I picked up this book. I'm a fan of some of Hawthorne's short stories--"Ethan Brand," "The Bosom Serpent," "Young Goodman Brown," among others--but I found his novel, "The House of the Seven Gables," long and plodding.
Boy, was I in for a surprise!
Yes, this book employs an antiquated style of English dialogue and sentence structure. True, the introductory chapter about the Custom-House can seem tedious. (And, if your edition comes with a modern introduction, please skip it till after you've read the book, since many of these misguided pages give away the book's key twists.) Once I got into the actual story, though, I was hooked. I took my time. I invested in each page, each paragraph, giving myself to the story of Hester Prynne, a woman whose child out of wedlock has revealed her adultery and subjected her with a lifetime of wearing a red A upon her chest, a fair warning to all, a constant reminder of her sin and shame.
Hester faces her guilt and tries to amend her ways. Hester's husband, who was thought lost at sea, makes an anonymous appearance in the community, even as the man responsible for Hester's child tries to bear the weight of his own sin in secret--and begins to physically and emotionally wither beneath that burden.
Despite Hester's reputation as a worthy seamstress, the town leaders want to take away her young daughter and give her to parents who will set a better example. Hester confronts the leaders head-on, feeling that her daughter is the one thing she has left to live for, and the one good thing that has come from her mistake. This issue becomes minor as her former husband sets into motion his own plans for revenge, and as her former lover faces the loss of his position and title, if not his very soul and breath, should his identity become known.
This is a novel full of symbolism, dealing with the legalistic, harsh world of the Puritans, and the religious mindset that can become focused on shaping lives for God instead of letting God shape lives. It was written around the time of the Salem witch trials, a time when stocks and pillories were still in vogue. It is a world unfamiliar to most modern readers, particularly high school students forced to read this cumbersome style, but it shows stark parallels with the fundamentalism that still rules in much of our world today.
Can sin be paid for by personal shame and humiliation? Can sin that remains hidden dissolve, or does it eventually come to light? What happens when family secrets become public? Even worse, what happens when they are buried?
I loved this book, once I committed myself to enjoying its older style and prose. Hawthorne creates unforgettable characters in Hester, Pearl, Mr. Dimmesdale, and Mr. Chillingworth. He imbues his writing with a respect for faith, yet a disdain for the religious guises that often try to walk hand in hand with it. He shows great respect for women and their struggles, far ahead of his time. He challenges readers to move beyond the harsh judgments of others and look into our own souls. Who does not bear the stain of wrongdoing? Is it better to bring such things into the light, or to hide them in darkness and await the results? These are still timely issues in politics, church, and homes, issues that Hawthorne addresses with much courage considering his own setting and upbringing.
Should this be considered a classic? Yes. Will most high school readers appreciate it? No. This is a story to be savored by those who will invest their time, as well as their mental and spiritual energy, to its ideas. If that's you, then you will come away richer for the experience. I certainly did.
Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (bargain edition typeset for the Kindle) Overview
Hester Prynne and her daughter Pearl struggle to rebuild their lives within the confines of repressive, Puritanical Salem. The world they lived in was the same world of the infamous Salem witch trials, over which Hawthorne's ancestor presided. Includes a fascinating introduction by Hawthorne that was published in a later edition.
Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (bargain edition typeset for the Kindle) Specifications
Amazon Exclusive: Editorial Director Elda Rotor on Classics That Never Go Out of Style
Dear Amazon Readers:
Penguin Classics is pleased to publish three new Penguin Classics Deluxe editions of Wuthering Heights, The Scarlet Letter and Pride and Prejudice, with covers designed by world-renowned fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo.
With Penguin's history of excellence in book design and following the success of our continued series of award-winning deluxe editions with covers by leading graphic and comic artists, we wanted to explore another inspiring world of design for Penguin Classics. Roseanne Serra, our art director for this series, which we call in-house the Couture Classics, had the vision of inviting fashion illustrators to create specially commissioned art work. My first choice of an artist to ask was Ruben Toledo, whose work I have admired since I was a student combing through pages of the earlier incarnations of Paper and Details magazines. I always found his drawings of women dressed in the latest styles to be so imaginative, whimsical and surreal, that they could be characters out of beloved novels.
Ruben agreed to draw these three covers, each in a different medium of ink, watercolor or pencil, because he was attracted to the idea of creating covers for a younger generation of Penguin Classics readers and to promote literacy. They are "not your mother's Bronte" as Glamour tagged the set. Our hope is that these vibrant covers will entice general readers and students with an interest in design to delve into the stories that inspire these artistic creations. We hope that book lovers, those that cherish the old-school feel of a physical book, who love book design, fonts, and the all-around aesthetics of a beautiful book, will want all three.
Cathy and Heathcliff, Hester and Pearl, and Elizabeth and Darcy are the literary muses for these covers, and readers will enjoy Ruben's interpretations of these classic characters plus the mood, texture, and scenery inspired by them. From front to back cover, extending even to the French flaps, each cover represents a refreshing representation of the classic work through Ruben's unique artistic sensibility.
The fun of these covers is that they reiterate that classics are relevant for every generation, especially the latest one. Liesl Schillinger for the New York Times blog identifies the fun in seeing the aesthetics of today's youth embodied in Toledo's art: "Was Heathcliff--the wild child of Wuthering Heights--a 19th-century emo boy? Can you picture Jane Austen's Lizzy Bennet as a Regency gossip girl, and Darcy as her Mr. Big in knee breeches? And what about Hester Prynne--was she Nathaniel Hawthorne's idea of a colonial yummy mummy?" Nylon first blogged about Toledo's series, and the tongue-in-cheek challenge to judge a book by its cover: "While his surreal take on the Yorkshire moors or his Technicolor vision of Hester Prynne might not change the actual details of the plot, they certainly add a stylish edge to book club mainstays."
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I've heard that people love the Wuthering Heights cover because it exudes the same dark Gothic sexiness of Twilight's Edward and Bella. (How perfect that Bella herself reads Wuthering Heights for advice on her own love life.) Toledo's details capturing Cathy's persona are mesmerizing, and the chic mysteriousness of Heathcliff peering above his collar captures the perfect bad-boyfriend tone.
The stark black and white Pride and Prejudice cover in silhouette is precise yet witty. (I love the chair on the back cover.) Ruben has a little extra for readers of Pride and Prejudice with a frontispiece of extra “accessories” for the cover's characters.
But my personal favorite is The Scarlet Letter cover. I love the gossiping women, who extend to the French flaps of the cover, emphasizing the size of Hester's scandal. For the font-crazed, Ruben creates various fonts of the letter "A" tacked along the fence. The rose bush, a classic image that appears in 19th-century illustrated editions, is the perfect anchor to this modern interpretation. Look at the ravishing Hester entangled by the mark she must wear on what might be a cashmere sweater dress with an utterly intimidating Pearl in tow in what could be Wolford baby tights. With such alluring images, who wouldn’t be compelled to read these novels?
What went through Ruben's mind in creating these covers? Ruben discussed his process with Women's Wear Daily, "I did approach each story as abstract images--visual quotes from a dream. As I read, I was playing the animated movie in my head. These masterpieces are all so well written."
We hope you enjoy all three books. We hope they spark your imagination and stir up passion for the classics, for Penguin Classics, so timeless and trend-setting, they never go out of style.
Best wishes,
Elda Rotor
Editorial Director, Penguin Classics
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Customer Reviews
forced to read the most horrible book ever - -
where to bloody begin.... ah.. in my junior year i and everyone else in class was forced to read the book and watch the horrible origanal slow and boring movie. after we got done with it almost everyone in the whole dang room yelled out that it suck, right at the same time. both this and the great gatsby sucked. but i dd surprisngly enjoyed the great gatsby movie towards the end of it
Doesn't translate well to modern readers, but is a classic. - E. S. Charpentier - Brainerd, MN United States
I wish that I had been able to read this book as part of a class or a group discussion, as there were many things alien to my time period I should have liked to have had explained to me.
That said, it was an important book to have read, if only to give the reader a picture of what life was like in that time and place.
I think that had I been Hester Prynne, I'd have moved away from that town immediately.
Just as Expected - M. Bennett - Texas
Had to have it for summer reading project and this was much easier and faster than going searching for it! Thank you!!
One of my least favorite english reads. - A student -
Like most people I was forced to read this novel in my English class. While I did enjoy it eventually it does have a very slow beginning. It has a good plot though and is a great way to understand the period in which Hawthorne wrote.
In my opinion this novel has one major flaw; metaphors. Yes most novels employ literary elements yet Hawthorne goes over board. He will give you a metaphor, give you another metaphor the same thing in case you didn't understand the first one; he will then flat out explain what the metaphor was. After a few chapters of this it gets very tedious and continues on through the book. The metaphors are not difficult to understand, yet he will often give long drawn out metaphors that may take over a page.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 02, 2010 07:37:05
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