THE SCARLET LETTER. A Romance

Boston: Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1850. First Edition, First Issue, with ads dated March 1. 1850, no preface and all first edition points noted by Clark, including 'reduplicate for 'repudiate' on page 21. Title-page printed in red and black. 8vo, a rare survival in the publisher’s original Ticknor Style A brown textured cloth, the covers decorated in blind, the spine printed in gilt. Now protected and housed in a folding box of brown cloth covered boards lined with marbled paper, the back with brown leather label lettered and ruled in gilt. iv, 322 pp. A beautifully preserved copy, and a remarkably fine example of what is arguably the author's most important and most revered work, as well as a landmark of American literature. The text very clean and fresh, completely free of foxing or stains, looking to be near as pristine the binding sturdy and strong, the hinges fine and firm, the cloth rich and unfaded with bright gilt, trivial rubbing to the tips and edges. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING AND VERY RARE IN SUCH FINE CONDITION. IN THE ORIGINAL CLOTH, THIS IS CORNERSTONE WORK IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND A LANDMARK WORK OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. An American Renaissance masterpiece and surely one of the most important works in the oeuvre of colonial America. More than any other work of literature, Hawthorne’s SCARLET LETTER set the stage for an understanding of the puritan mind and beginnings of the American social system.
The first printing of THE SCARLET LETTER consisted of only 2500 copies, and sold out within days. It is said when Hawthorne delivered the final pages to Ticknor, Reed and Fields he doubted it would be popular, but THE SCARLET LETTER ushered in the most lucrative period of his long career. The public'a positive response was enormous, but the book was not without its critics. The publication brought protest from natives of Salem, who did not like how Hawthorne depicted their Puritan ancestors. Religious leaders also took issue with the novel's subject, and the 'Church Review' offered that the novel "perpetrates bad morals."
Reviewers from the next generation proved more tolerant. Author D. H. Lawrence argued that there could not be a more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter. Henry James said of the novel; "It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things—an indefinable purity and lightness of conception... One can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art.