The Scarlet Letter"'Thou and thine, Hester Prynne, belong to me.' With these chilling words a husband claims his wife after a two-year absence. But the child she clutches is not his, and Hester must wear a scarlet 'A' upon her breast, the sin of adultery visible to all. Under an assumed name her husband begins his search for her lover, determined to expose what Hester is equally determined to protect. Defiant and proud, Hester witnesses the degradation of two very different men, as moral codes and legal imperatives painfully collide." "Set in the Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, The Scarlet Letter also sheds light on the nineteenth century in which it was written, as Hawthorne explores his ambivalent relations with his Puritan forebears. The text of this edition is taken from the Centenary Edition of Hawthorne's works, the most authoritative critical edition."--BOOK JACKET. |
Contents
The Custom House Introductory | 1 |
The Prison Door | 43 |
The Market Place | 45 |
Copyright | |
23 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
answered Hester Art thou Arthur Dimmesdale aspect beauty beheld beneath bosom breast breath brook brought character child clergyman cried Custom House dark deep Dimmes Dimmesdale's Dost thou earth earthly embroidered England evil eyes face fancy father felt forest gaze gleam Governor Bellingham grave gray hand hath heart heaven Hester Prynne hither human ignominy imagination impulse infant kind King's Chapel knew laughed light likewise little Pearl look magistrates man's market place mind minister minister's Mistress Hibbins moral murmur Nathaniel Hawthorne nature never Old Manse old Roger Chillingworth once pale passed passion perhaps personage physician pillory poor Prynne's Puritan Reverend scaffold scarlet letter scene secret seemed seen shadow shame sinful smile solemn sorrow soul speak spirit step stern stood strange sunshine Surveyor sympathy tence thee thou hast thought tion token town tremulous truth venerable voice whispered wild Wilt thou woman yonder young