Book Review: The Scarlet Letter

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” 


In a continuation of books that I somehow didn't read in junior high school or high school, I review The Scarlet Letter.  I could have read this one in junior high, but my mother chose The Crucible over it when we were reading Puritanical guilt-analysis in homeschool.  I don't resent her for this.  The Crucible is a fantastic book as well that I needed to read.  But I don't regret my choice this past week to read The Scarlet Letter. 

Just a note on finding a book cover for the picture:  people the last line is "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."  So, why are so many people making her in a red dress with a black A?  And why would you ever make the A on her dress black?  The book is called "The SCARLET Letter."



For those who don't know the basic plot:  Hester Prynne has had a child.  But her husband hasn't been seen in years.  So, in Puritan Boston, she is sentenced to always wear the red letter A on her chest, for adulterer.  But she will not tell the name of the father.  Who in their community is the sharer of her guilt? She won't say, but perhaps it would have been better for him if she had.

I think that The Scarlet Letter is a fantastic treatise on guilt, as well as repentance.  I had a lot of struggle in the preface...in fact, I would just skip it on a reread, but once it gets to the actual story, it is exquisite poetry, and insightful prose.  It is also just necessary for cultural literacy.  I even already included an allusion in one of my novels.

4 stars...if I liked the preface it would get 5 stars. 

Comments

Evelyn said…
I also read this book for the first time in my twenties because I had never had it assigned either, and I wanted to know why it was so famous. I, too, really love the book.
August 27, 2014 at 1:25 AM
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