Product Description

Set in the harsh Puritan community of 17th century Boston, this is a tale of an adulterous entanglement that results in an illegitimate birth. The mother of the child, Hester Prynne, is publicly disgraced and ostracized but emerges as the first true heroine of American fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #219298 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts, where he wrote the bulk of his masterful tales of American colonial history. His career as a novelist began with The Scarlet Letter (1850) and also includes The house of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun. Nina Baym is Director of the School of Humanities and Professor of English at the University of Illinois. She has published widely on Hawthorne and other American writers.

Customer Reviews

Mary Sue?
One of those rare books where I don't know what to think. On the one hand, I found this interesting from the perspective of understanding a fading moral world. The option of 'walking away' is an obvious one, and the characters seem deliberately perverse in refusing it. Hester's husband and Pearl's father are strikingly drawn--the former is more fascinating than your average avenger, and I fell in love with the latter almost against my will. On the other, everybody has a tendency to flatten into Gothic 'types'. Most admittedly fiendish people don't proclaim themselves fiends. Hawthorne's narrator seems a little confused about his opinion--which is possibly deliberate, but for me frustrating. Pearl nowadays ticks a lot of the Mary Sue boxes. I was mainly disappointed, having expected something more revolutionary--but perhaps the cliches didn't exist then!