The Scarlet Letter

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Simon and Schuster, 2004 - Fiction - 372 pages
Enriched Classics offer readers accessible editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and commentary. Each book includes educational tools alongside the text, enabling students and readers alike to gain a deeper and more developed understanding of the writer and their work.

Set two centuries before Hawthorne’s own time, The Scarlet Letter follows heroine Hester Prynne who is compelled by her Puritan society to wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ on her clothes as a symbol of her sin: adultery. Accompanied by colorful and flawed characters, including the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale who broods over a long-hidden secret, and Hester’s husband Roger Chillingsworth who thirsts for vengeance, The Scarlet Letter, America’s first psychological novel, is a masterpiece that explores humanity’s unending struggles with pride, sin, and guilt.

Enriched Classics enhance your engagement by introducing and explaining the historical and cultural significance of the work, the author’s personal history, and what impact this book had on subsequent scholarship. Each book includes discussion questions that help clarify and reinforce major themes and reading recommendations for further research.

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Selected pages

Contents

Letter
5
THE PRISONDOOR
55
3
69
4
75
THE INTERVIEW
81
5
91
6
103
The Governors Hall
117
A Forest Walk
219
The Pastor and His Parishioner
227
A Flood of Sunshine
239
The Child at the BrookSide
247
The Minister in a Maze
257
The New England Holiday
271
The Procession
283
The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter
297

The ElfChild and the Minister
127
The Leech
139
The Leech and His Patient
153
The Interior of a Heart
165
The Ministers Vigil
175
Another View of Hester
189
Hester and the Physician
201
PEARL
209
Conclusion
309
Nathaniel Hawthorne on The Scarlet Letter
317
Notes
327
Interpretive Notes
343
Critical Excerpts
353
Questions for Discussion
369
Suggestions for the Interested Reader
371
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. He was educated at the Bowdoin College in Maine (1821-24). Between the years 1825 and 1836 Hawthorne worked as a writer and contributor to periodicals. His first novel, Fanshawe, appeared anonymously at his own expense in 1828. In 1842 he married Sophia Peabody, an active participant in the Transcendentalist movement. His marriage to Sophia provided the inspiration for the noble character of Hester Prynne. He died in 1864.

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