The Scarlet Letter (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) FROM OUR EDITORS
Barnes & Noble Classics offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Scarlet Letter, America’s first psychological
novel, exploded society’s view of Puritanism upon its initial
publication in 1850, and today—perhaps more than ever—it
holds the power to change the way we think about human relationships,
punishment, and the status quo.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel is a dark tale of love, crime, and
revenge set in colonial New England. It revolves around a single,
forbidden act of passion that forever alters the lives of three members
of a small Puritan community: Hester Prynne, an ardent, fierce, and
ultimately ostracized woman who bears the symbol of her sin—the
letter A stitched into the breast of her gown—in humble silence;
the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a respected public figure who is inwardly
tormented by long-hidden guilt; and the malevolent Roger Chillingworth,
Hester’s husband—a man who seethes with an Ahab-like lust for
vengeance.
The landscape of this classic novel is uniquely American, but the themes
it explores are both timeless and universal—the nature of sin,
guilt, and penitence, the clash between our private and public selves,
and the spiritual and psychological cost of living outside society.
Constructed with the elegance of a Greek tragedy, The Scarlet
Letter brilliantly illuminates the truth that lies deep within the
human heart.
Introduction and Notes by Nancy Stade
“Hawthorne’s novel remains credible both as a reflection on
a particular historical moment and as a portrait of the internal
devastation caused by a particular transgression that, in America, at
least, might today inspire an ambivalent mixture of censure, titillation,
and indifference. That successive women’s movements and our
purported sexual liberation and rationality have not rendered The
Scarlet Letter irrelevant raises the suspicion that the moral
relativism of contemporary times may be overstated, and that the crime
behind the red letter might be more, or other than, simply of the
flesh.” —from the Introduction by Nancy Stade
Novelist and short story writer Nancy Stade is trained as a lawyer and
has worked in the private sector. She currently lives in Washington,
D.C., where she works for the Federal Drug Administration.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born into an established New England
Puritan family on Independence Day, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts.
Uninterested in conventional professions such as law, medicine, or the
ministry, Nathaniel chose instead to rely “for support upon my
pen.” Hawthorne’s coterie consisted of transcendentalist
thinkers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Herman
Melville had an early appreciation for the work of Hawthorne, but he did
not gain wide public recognition until after his death. Although
Twice-Told Tales (1837) and other works met with little financial
success, Hawthorne is credited, along with Edgar Allan Poe, with
establishing the American short story.
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