The Scarlet Letter
Books | Fiction / General
3.6
(3.7K)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The canonical American masterpiece of sin, guilt, and revenge, in an authoritative new edition from Penguin Classics with a foreword by Tom Perrotta At once retrospective and radically new, The Scarlet Letter portrays seventeenth-century Puritan New England, a time period irreversibly encoded in the American identity. Hawthorne built one of the most incisive and devastating human dramas ever written out of a community and its outcasts: Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, one emblazoned with sin and the other distraught with hidden guilt; Pearl, a child born into ostracism; and Roger Chillingworth, driven to vengeance by hatred. Though these characters face a set of specifically troubling circumstances, their words and actions point to moral truths inherent in human affairs, independent of time and place. The text of this edition, approved by the Center for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association, is the result of an exhaustive examination of Hawthorne’s manuscript and other historical records. Robert Milder provides an enlightening new scholarly introduction and bibliography. Tom Perrotta, whose novel The Leftovers—now a hit HBO show—was influenced by Hawthorne’s work, provides a thoughtful foreword on how he came to appreciate Hawthorne’s masterpiece.For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Pages
288
Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
Published Date
2015-12
ISBN
0143107666 9780143107668
Community ReviewsSee all
"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reading this for AP English, I wasn’t expecting to like it.
It was suspenseful will do relatable to present day in ways it shouldn’t be. The characters were so interesting and broken that I felt for them. Mind boggling and worth a little more focus to get to the root of what you’re reading."
"Honestly thought I was gonna hate this and I think I would have if I had to read it for an English class and if I hadn't listened to it as an audiobook I also probably wouldn't have enjoyed it. But I thought Pearl was very funny actually and Hester was quite snarky and a good character as well. it was interesting to read along side books with high school settings like one of us is lying because of the plot points of cheating and such. Aside from the very very outdated language I thought this book was good. Would not enjoy tearing it apart in an English literature class and be forced to draw the littlest conclusions about symbolism and such. that would ruin just about any book that's already difficult to read."
"The ending broke my heart but the journey was worth it!"
L T
LJ Teninty
"if it wasn’t for school, i would have never read this book.<br/><br/>it has a good, thought provoking story, but it takes a few passes and intense effort to grasp the full meaning of the words <i>as most school assigned books require…</i><br/><br/>the period this book takes place in is so interesting. with puritans, the lingering remnants of the elizabethan era in the 1640s, hawthorne’s current 1850s society, and romantic vs gothic writing.<br/><br/>other than the occasional self reflection, character exploration chapter, the story is overall well managed. it’s logical.<br/><br/>towards around the 45%, i started to lose the story line. answers to my reading guide weren’t as clear as they were in the beginning. not even google could answer them. <i>but no worries, after chapter 12 it started to pick up again.</i><br/><br/>hester is an absolute hero. she is badass. she is brave. she is strength. she may be depressed, but she takes the punishment in stride and though she may not like it, she carries on with her life. <i>not many people can pick themselves back up like that.</i><br/><br/><i>this is one of the better school assigned books, but frankenstein still beats it.</i>"
e
emma
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