The Scarlet Letter: Easy Read Edition: Everything You Need in Half the Time

It is always difficult to share your thoughts about classics. Especially when you’ve struggled with some aspects of the book. At least this is the way it is for me. I don’t think my critical opinion holds any value on a global scale. Legendary books will be read irrespective of my subjective impressions. Still, on the other hand, there is no harm in adding one more opinion to the vast number of opinions already expressed about the story.I can’t say that I didn’t like “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I did like the eloquent, dreamy prose that transported me into a different reality. The image of the seventeenth-century Puritan society the author draws in the story is fascinating.The main issue that kept me from fully enjoying the book is that it didn’t show me who Hester Prynne really was. It felt like there is a photograph of the main character with a description of how she looks and what her daily activities are on the back. Hester Prynne lacks substance, and without it, it’s hard to relate to anyone, real or fictional.My assumption is that the author, being a product of his time, simply didn’t have a broad enough knowledge of women and the inner workings of their minds. The fact that the emotional sufferings of Arthur Dimmesdale are described vividly and in detail somewhat gives weight to this theory.Although inarguably poetic, the author’s style is rather heavy. Some sentences are a Kindle page long. I’m not a fan of short sentences without adverbs and adjectives. For me, language is like clay, from which you can create an infinite number of forms. And still, reading “The Scarlet Letter” was challenging. The introductory chapter was especially taxing, and I was relieved that the author changed the style a little in the main part of the book.Usually, I have so much to say about what I thought and felt reading the book. In this case, I am at a loss what to share.The chapters dedicated to Arthur Dimmesdale are piercing, showing a person torn by his passions that contradict society's rules. He is unlikeable, weak, and self-centered. The author has managed to demonstrate how the man’s emotional struggles led to his physical decline.Hester’s daughter Pearl also is an intriguing character, but to the readers, she remains an enigma, much like her mother.Roger Chillingworth adds spice to the story. But since it’s already packed with drama, I failed to appreciate the edge he represents.All in all, the book hasn’t left me indifferent. It has also left me with too many unanswered questions. It’s not a bad thing to be left wondering “what if”. But with “The Scarlet Letter”, the questions are “What happened in the main characters’ lives?”, “How did they meet?”, “What did they feel about this and that?”. And these are too profound questions not to get even a glimpse of an answer to.

This book is referenced so much in pop culture I feel like it is important for people to read and understand it. I love the characters, the writing isn’t difficult to understand despite the novel being written over a century ago, and the story does not drag on. The chapters are short so it’s easy to pick up and spend 10 minutes on, then move on to another task in your daily life. Gives interesting perspective on society in early America.

What a classic story in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have read other Hawthorne stories, and this is not the first time I read this one. Anyone who ever went to high school English class, knows about the Scarlet Letter "A" and why Hester wore it. I remember reading this book in high school, so reading it for the second time (and decades later), gave me a different perspective of the story. I was now reading it as an adult, not as a teenager writing a book report (remember those?) I see why this is a classic title, and yes, to me it is, not because it was written in 1850, but because it shows the perspective and perception of morality, and this very, very small town, who doted on Dimmsdale, but chastised Hester (even wanted her hung) because of her infidelity. I'm glad that I read this book again. I read it mainly because it is on the banned book list (several, actually), and I wanted to see if what I remembered about the book was accurate. It was in a way, but it was also different. I guess we change as we get older, and what we see when we're younger, we don't always see as we grow older. If you've read this before, I recommend reading it again.

Just look at a portrait of him as a young man, note the noble brow, the handsome features, the sensitivity, how romantic......... Curl up with this book and let Nathaniel tell you his tale in his beautiful poetic language . This is a book to be read quietly, alone, not in an airport lounge or on the subway, but preferably in a beautiful garden or sunroom with the windows open. Let the beauty of his language flow over you and transport you back in time.It is over 200 years since Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachusetts, his great great grandfather officiated at the Salem Witch Trials. He was both disturbed and intrigued by his ancestry. One day when working at The Custom House in Salem to make ends meet as a struggling young author, he discovered in one of the upstairs rooms some dusty old boxes, on opening them he found them to contain relics from the past, long since forgotten. Yellowing documents and an intriguing piece of embroidery, a scrap of faded and torn material with the letter A embroidered on it. He picked it up, and while wondering what it was, he held it up to his chest, and at that moment he claims to have felt a burning sensation which caused him to drop the piece of cloth. It gave him inspiration for this story along with documents he found about a woman called Hester Prynne.The scene he sets so vividly is somewhere around 350 years ago 150 years before he was born. In a time when behavior to which we can hardly be bothered to raise an eyebrow was in that day considered a punishable sin. A disgrace for life. Branded by having to wear a scarlet letter on the chest for all to see. It is a feminist novel, (Nathaniel Hawthorne supported women's rights). Briefly, the protagonist Hester Prynne has a child from an adulterous relationship and refuses to name the father. Her husband a physician much older than she has never been a "proper" husband to her so she had looked elsewhere for love. The husband vows to find the father of the child, and in exchange for her freedom makes Hester swear she will never disclose who her husband is. Her husband being a physician quickly deduces who the father is from the way he is wasting away under his burden of guilt. He sets about a long period of torment of the young man of which Hester is aware but can say nothing because of her promise. Finally she has had enough and decides to come clean, shaming the devil, (her husband) and redeeming the young man. I do not want to spoil anything by divulging the name of the father of the child in case you do not know.This is such a simple and brief account it would make Nathaniel wince to read it. There is so much more to the story. It states in the blurb that it is a psychological novel before there was a science called psychology. The way the characters in the story interact with each other, the symbolism, the different values of the day from Nathaniel's day, and then again to this day. The religious aspect in Puritan times, the emotional ups and downs as you empathize with first one and then another of the characters. It is a wonderful story and well deserving of its position as one of America's great classics.

A religious/Christian psychodrama concerned with guilt, sin, redemption, this gets very fevered at times with first Pearl and then Chillingworth being associated with the devil.There are interesting secular themes, too, about identity, forms of authority, and the individual vs. society. But gosh, Hawthorne is heavy-handed with his symbolism!From the 'scarlet letter' itself which has multiple manifestations and interpretations to in-your-face instances of meteors, beams of sunshine and roses, Hawthorne is constantly beating us over the head to make sure we 'get' his figurative subtexts. Slightly more subtle are visions of Pearl flirting with her reflection in a stream, echoing both Ovid's Narcissus and Milton's Eve.Definitely more akin to The Pilgrim's Progress than Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

The Scarlet Letter is one of those books you've heard about, and feel you ought to read.Please note - skip The Custom House preamble. It's pointless.This is a hard one to rate.It is, of course, very well written. And a great insight into 17th century Puritan life (but written in 1850).The language, therefore is of its time, and can feel a bit of an effort to wade through.Hester Prynne is a sinner. She's had a baby, and it's clearly not her husband's. Enter the scarlet letter itself.The story is basically of her atonement for this dreadful sin. And the suffering spreads further than merely to herself.And that's the long and short of this book; suffering, misery and more suffering.The daughter is a wild contrast of all this. But not necessarily in a good way. She is often caste as a demon child.And yet, I found myself intrigued and compelled to reach the conclusion.I understand many school children have been forced to read this, and I pity them. It must be quite an ordeal to pick this apart.However, as an adult with no other agenda than to read the book as is, it's an interesting one.

A religious/Christian psychodrama concerned with guilt, sin, redemption, this gets very fevered at times with first Pearl and then Chillingworth being associated with the devil.There are interesting secular themes, too, about identity, forms of authority, and the individual vs. society. But gosh, Hawthorne is heavy-handed with his symbolism!From the 'scarlet letter' itself which has multiple manifestations and interpretations to in-your-face instances of meteors, beams of sunshine and roses, Hawthorne is constantly beating us over the head to make sure we 'get' his figurative subtexts. Slightly more subtle are visions of Pearl flirting with her reflection in a stream, echoing both Ovid's Narcissus and Milton's Eve.Definitely more akin to The Pilgrim's Progress than Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

I purchased this book in the Everyman's Library Classics Edition.The Everyman's Library Classics Edition books are, in my opinion, the best quality books available in the price-range.They are quality bound; with acid-free paper, dust jacket, and ribbon page marker.There are also a great range of authors available in this collection; and they are very reasonably priced. The story itself, is a well known classic, which is beautifully written, by a very talented writer.

Modern readers may find the verbal eloquence of writers from this period trying. Like Irving, Hawthorne delighted in such loquaciousness, but even if it doesn't work for you, the story, primarily about appearances, is still pertinent and worth reading.