Book description
With an essay by D. H. Lawrence.
'Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, - stern
and wild ones, - and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss'
Fiercely romantic and hugely influential, The Scarlet Letter
is the tale of Hester Prynne, imprisoned, publicly shamed, and forced
to wear a scarlet 'A' for committing adultery and bearing an
illegitimate child, Pearl. In their small, Puritan village, Hester and
her daughter struggle to survive, but in this searing study of the
tension between private and public existence, Hester Prynne's inner
strength and quiet dignity means she has frequently been seen as one
of the first great heroines of American fiction.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in
English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the
beginning of the First World War.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. In 1825
he graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, and returned to
Salem determined to become a writer. He joined Brook Farm, a utopian
experiment in communal living, before marrying in 1842. His writing had
already secured some success with his
Twice-Told Tales
, but it was the publication of
The Scarlet Letter
in 1850 that brought him immediate recognition, followed a year later by
by
The House of the Seven Gables.
He died on a trip in New Hampshire in 1864.
