The Scarlet Letter

by Hawthorne, Nathaniel; Marx, Leo

• ISBN13: 9780451525222
• ISBN10: 0451525221
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1959-08-01
• Publisher: Signet Classics

Summary

Set in the harsh Puritan community of 17th century Massachusetts, this tale of an adulterous entanglement resulting in an illegitimate birth engendered the first true heroine of American fiction.

Author Biography

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, the son and grandson of proud New England seafarers. He lived in genteel poverty with his widowed mother and two young sisters in a house filled with Puritan ideals and family pride in a prosperous past. His boyhood was, in most respects, pleasant and normal. In 1825 he was graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, and he returned to Salem determined to become a writer of short stories. For the next twelve years he was plagued with unhappiness and self-doubts as he struggled to master his craft. He finally secured some small measure of success with the publication of his Twice-Told Tales (1837). His marriage to Sophia Peabody in 1842 was a happy one. The Scarlet Letter (1850), which brought him immediate recognition, was followed by The House of the Seven Gables (1851). After serving four years as the American Consul in Liverpool, England, he traveled in Italy; he returned home to Massachusetts in 1860. Depressed, weary of writing, and failing in health, he died on May 19, 1864, at Plymouth, New Hampshire.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii	(6)
Preface to the Second Edition of The Scarlet Letter	xiii
THE CUSTOM HOUSE. INTRODUCTORY SKETCH	15	(40)
1. THE PRISON DOOR	55	(2)
2. THE MARKET PLACE	57	(9)
3. THE RECOGNITION	66	(9)
4. THE INTERVIEW	75	(7)
5. HESTER AT HER NEEDLE	82	(9)
6. PEARL	91	(10)
7. THE GOVERNOR'S HALL	101	(7)
8. THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER	108	(9)
9. THE LEECH	117	(10)
10. THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT	127	(9)
11. THE INTERIOR OF A HEART	136	(7)
12. THE MINISTER'S VIGIL	143	(11)
13. ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER	154	(8)
14. HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN	162	(6)
15. HESTER AND PEARL	168	(6)
16. A FOREST WALK	174	(6)
17. THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER	180	(9)
18. A FLOOD OF SUNSHINE	189	(6)
19. THE CHILD AT THE BROOKSIDE	195	(7)
20. THE MINISTER IN A MAZE	202	(10)
21. THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY	212	(9)
22. THE PROCESSION	221	(10)
23. THE REVELATION OF THE SCARLET LETTER	231	(9)
24. CONCLUSION	240	(7)
Endicott and the Red Cross	247	(8)
Selected Bibliography	255