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Scarlet Letter

Scarlet Letter Paperback - 1991

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • Used
  • Good
  • Paperback

Description

Penguin Books Australia, 1991. Paperback. Good. Slight signs of wear on the cover. Ammareal gives back up to 15% of this book's net price to charity organizations.
Used - Good
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Details

  • Title Scarlet Letter
  • Author Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: Repri
  • Condition Used - Good
  • Pages 256
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books Australia, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
  • Date 1991
  • Bookseller's Inventory # C-176-416
  • ISBN 9780451525222 / 0451525221
  • Weight 0.28 lbs (0.13 kg)
  • Dimensions 6.89 x 4.22 x 0.67 in (17.50 x 10.72 x 1.70 cm)
  • Reading level 410
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 88063510
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About this book

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance (1850) is considered the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'masterwork.' A work of historical fiction set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Puritan settlement of 1642-1949 itells the story of Hester Prynne, who after having a child as a result of an extra-marital affair attempts to live a life of repentance and dignity although she is marked by having to wear a Scarlett A on her person. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

The Scarlett Letter was one of the first mass-produced novels in the United States, prior printing of books generally done by hand. The 2,500 copies first printed sold out in days, and the mass-production of books opened up conversation about books and authors to a wider-audience on a national level. The first edition of The Scarlet Letter sold out in ten days and “made Hawthorne’s fame, changed his fortune and gave to our literature its first symbolic novel a year before the appearance of Melville’s Moby-Dick” (Bradley). Although an instant best-seller, the books sales over fourteen years only brought the author $1500.

Summary

A stark and allegorical tale of adultery, guilt, and social repression in Puritan New England, The Scarlet Letter is a foundational work of American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne's exploration of the dichotomy between the public and private self, internal passion and external convention, gives us the unforgettable Hester Prynne, who discovers strength in the face of ostracism and emerges as a heroine ahead of her time.

From the publisher

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, the son and grandson of proud New England seafarers. He lived in genteel poverty with his widowed mother and two young sisters in a house filled with Puritan ideals and family pride in a prosperous past. His boyhood was, in most respects, pleasant and normal. In 1825 he was graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, and he returned to Salem determined to become a writer of short stories. For the next twelve years he was plagued with unhappiness and self-doubts as he struggled to master his craft. He finally secured some small measure of success with the publication of his Twice-Told Tales (1837). His marriage to Sophia Peabody in 1842 was a happy one. The Scarlet Letter (1850), which brought him immediate recognition, was followed by The House of the Seven Gables (1851). After serving four years as the American Consul in Liverpool, England, he traveled in Italy; he returned home to Massachusetts in 1860. Depressed, weary of writing, and failing in health, he died on May 19, 1864, at Plymouth, New Hampshire.

First Edition Identification

First edition published by Ticknor, Reeds and Fields, in Boston 1850. Main first edition marker is "reduplicate" instead of "repudiate" on page 21 Four page publisher's adverts at front dated March 1, 1850 and preceding the free end paper. The brown T-cloth favored by Ticknor & Fields is famous for becoming brittle with age, and cracking or fraying at the spine tips. First editions can run upwards of $20,000.

The second edition adds a preface and has a Metcalf imprint on verso of title-page. The third printing has the same preface but has a Hobart & Robbins imprint on verso of title-page.

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