The Scarlet Letter - Softcover

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853260290 ISBN 13: 9781853260292

Publisher: Wordsworth Editions, 1992

Synopsis

Introduction and Notes by Henry Claridge, Senior Lecturer, School of English, University of Kent at Canterbury.

This is a troubling story of crime, sin, guilt, punishment and expiation, set in the rigid moral climate of 17th-century New England. The young mother of an illegitimate child confronts her Puritan judges.

However, it is not so much her harsh sentence, but the cruelties of slowly exposed guilt as her lover is revealed, that hold the reader enthralled all the way to the book's poignant climax.

About this title

Review:

Anyone interested in how novels refract history will be enriched by the Broadview edition of The Scarlet Letter. The valuable introduction and extensive archival material will give readers a great foundation for using Hawthorne's historicist methodology as a model for discussing the complexities of history and storytelling not only for Hawthorne but for contemporary readers as well. --Lauren Berlant, University of Chicago

John Stephen Martin's meticulously prepared edition of The Scarlet Letter offers both students and general readers the most comprehensive introduction to Hawthorne's life and work currently available in one volume. With its historical contextualization, enormously helpful annotations, and judicious assessment of Hawthorne's greatest work, it establishes itself as the single best guide to this great American masterpiece. --Joel Porte, Cornell University

From the Publisher:

Contains an 8-page plate section with long-unavailable pictures and drawings relating to Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter.

Thoroughly edited and extensively annotated

Includes a 10,000-word section on Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and works, with a longer chapter on The Scarlet Letter, anecdotes, critical perspectives, adaptations and spin-offs

Lavishly produced on natural, high-quality paper, and affordably priced

About this edition

• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 1853260290
• ISBN 13: 9781853260292
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224