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The Scarlet Letter (Bantam Classics) (平装)
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
| Category:
American Literature, Fiction, Classic |
| Market price: ¥ 68.00
MSL price:
¥ 68.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
The novel is immersed in Gothic elements and in typical Hawthorne symbolism which deal with man's struggle versus sin and good versus evil.The theme of the violation of the human heart is the real strength of the novel. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 13 items |
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Peter Pipinis (MSL quote), Australia
<2007-03-12 00:00>
The Scarlet Letter is a work of genius. Nathaniel Hawthorne tells his story with astonishingly perfect art. The plot is flawless (except for the final chapter). His prose style, though difficult, is entirely appropriate to the seriousness of his themes. We are taken into the mid-seventeenth century world of the Puritan New Englanders with brilliant economy, the social and natural scene is superbly rendered, the drama is immediately and vividly brought before us.
In a holier-than-thou community where the sinner (a person who has broken one of God's commandments) is forever judged, damned and punished, a young woman, Hester Prynne, has been found guilty of adultery. She will therefore be made a permanent example of. The story of the rest of Hester's life is one half of what the novel is concerned with, showing us the goodness and healthy rebelliousness of the human heart that must, and does, prevail.
The other half of the story concerns Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester's lover (the father of their 'unnatural', illegitimate child), who only near the end reveals his crime to the people of the town. Before this occurs, unlike Hester, who is almost completely ostracised and forced to always wear a scarlet letter A, for Adultery, he is venerated as a saint by the community. His confession exposes the whole compromised, hypocritical system - outcome of a movement which began (history records) with hopes of being a 'new Zion', 'a city set on a hill'.
The novel is at its most intense when revealing Dimmesdale's profound spiritual torment as he struggles with his feelings of guilt and need to both confess and keep hidden his 'fallen' state. Our appalled identification with him, as he recognises his utter damnation (his conscience continually pricked by Hester's vengeful, cold, intellectual husband, whose true identity only she knows), shows us the full horror of believing sins are never forgiven and must be defeated through suppression of 'corrupt' human nature.
As well as the justly famous symbolism, the story is composed of many other elements, including fable, psychology and the simplest down-to-earth realism. Reading it is to feel that all life - however circumscribed - is here. The characters, especially Hester and Dimmesdale, are so well drawn they rise above symbolic limitations. They are fully realised human beings, with recognisable flaws and virtues.
The Scarlet Letter is a book for all humanity and all time. It took me to a world which I sometimes found oppressive and very nearly life-denying, yet due to Nathaniel Hawthorne's artistry an infinitely enriching and always enjoyable experience. These are, after all, the surest signs of a great novel.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-12 00:00>
This book is the first of two grand contributions that Nathaniel Hawthorne made to American literature (the second being the inspiration that he provided to Herman Melville during the composition of Moby Dick.) Like all great books, this novel deals with issues which are timeless and central to the human condition. Can (or should) the state legislate morality? If so, to what degree? Which is the greater sin, a momentary weakness or a sustained and conscious deception? Which is the greater punishment, public humiliation or private guilt? And, perhaps most importantly, what is the proper response to each? The novel provides clear and compelling examples of tragic consequences which can be avoided by the simple, but sometimes difficult, act of telling the truth. The permeating sadness of the story results from the failure of each character to do so.
Despite comments here to the contrary, this book is not difficult to read or understand, and it is not dull if you can grasp its themes. The ideas expressed are intricate and symbolism is pervasive throughout the story. However, any reader who really wants to understand and enjoy the book should not have great difficulty in doing so. To those readers who feel challenged to appreciate this book, Hawthorne himself offers you a thought (on page 18 of my edition) which you should seriously consider -
"It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate."
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Daniel Jolley (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-12 00:00>
The Scarlet Letter is truly one of literature's greatest triumphs, its characters and themes reverberating in our collective consciousness more than 150 years after its initial publication. Few novels inspire as much contemplation and feeling on the part of the reader. Hester Prynne, American fiction's first and foremost female heroine continues to haunt this world, inspiring a never-ending stream of scholarly debate. Even in our less puritanical age, some doubtless see her as a villainously great temptress, but to me she is a remarkably brave hero indeed. Her sin is known to all, and she never runs away from it, bearing the scarlet letter on her bosom bravely for all to see; she realizes the true measure of that sin, fretting constantly over the effects it will have on young Pearl, remaining steadfast in her beliefs while at the same time envisioning a new society where women and men can exist on more equal terms, free of the stultifyingly harsh punishments meted out on even the most repentant of souls by Puritanism. She shows her noble spirit by refusing to name her partner in sin and goes so far as to allow the ruthless Roger Chillingworth to torment the man she loves deeply enough to protect him for all time. Little Pearl is somewhat of an enigma, truly manifesting traits of both the imp and the little angel; her questions about the letter her mother wears and the minister who continually holds his hand against his heart reflect an insight that amazes this reader. Chillingworth is a thoroughly black-hearted man; I can certainly understand the blow he sustained as a result of Hester's sin, but his actions and thirst for prolonged revenge on the so-called perpetrator of the wrong he suffered can only be described as roguish and unpalatable.
Of course, the most complex character in the novel (and literature as a whole) is the good minister Arthur Dimmsdale. One is compelled to both like him and despise him. He is basically a good man and an unquestionably fine soldier in the army of the Lord, winning many souls to God with his impassioned sermons. He is more aware than anyone else of his sinful nature, and he punishes himself quite brutally in private in a useless attempt to make up for the public ignominy he lacks the moral courage to call upon himself with a public profession of his deed. Dimmsdale is a coward and a hypocrite. At one critical moment in the latter pages of the novel, he blames Hester for his state of misery, and it is that comment in particular that makes this tragic character a man I can only commiserate with to a limited degree. Even at the penultimate moment of the novel, as he finally bears the mark of his shame and guilt for all his parishioners to see, the very men and women who have viewed him as a saintly man of God rather than the brigand he knows himself to be, he does not openly confess-his words and deeds do make plain the secret of his heart, but it is his lack of a thoroughly bold confession that causes some of his most devoted followers, so Hawthorne tells us, to blindly judge his final act as an illustrative parable on the danger of sin threatening each member of his congregation rather than an admission of guilt and self-condemnation.
It upsets me to see readers who do not appreciate this novel as one of the earliest and best American classics, a novel that contributed greatly to the establishment of a literary culture in the young country. The language is of a more florid style than today's readers are used to, but this novel is in no way boring. Hawthorne paints some of the most vivid scenes of human drama I have ever witnessed; he writes in such a way that you are there in colonial Boston watching the story play out before your very eyes, struggling to come to terms with your own feelings in regard to such complex and sometimes inscrutable characters. The climactic chapter is truly and deeply moving, more than capable of bringing tears to the eyes of the sensitive soul. The Scarlet Letter is just a brilliant, gripping, thoroughly human novel that I wish everyone could appreciate as much as I do.
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1 2 Total 2 pages 13 items |
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