The scarlet letter E-Book

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Scarlet letter is a classic of American literature written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set in the Puritan and Retrograde New England of the seventeenth century, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne who, having committed adultery, has a daughter who refuses to reveal her father, struggling to create a new life of repentance and dignity.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

THE CUSTOM-HOUSE - INTRODUCTORY TO “THE SCARLET LETTER”

I. THE PRISON-DOOR

II. THE MARKET-PLACE

III. THE RECOGNITION

IV. THE INTERVIEW

V. HESTER AT HER NEEDLE

VI. PEARL

VII. THE GOVERNOR’S HALL

VIII. THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER

IX. THE LEECH

X. THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT

XI. THE INTERIOR OF A HEART

XII. THE MINISTER’S VIGIL

XIII. ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER

XIV. HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN

XV. HESTER AND PEARL

XVI. A FOREST WALK

XVII. THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER

XVIII. A FLOOD OF SUNSHINE

XIX. THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE

XX. THE MINISTER IN A MAZE

XXI. THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY

XXII. THE PROCESSION

XXIII. THE REVELATION OF THE SCARLET LETTER

XXIV. CONCLUSION

THE SCARLET LETTER

BY

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

First digital edition 2018 by Gianluca Ruffini

THE CUSTOM-HOUSE - INTRODUCTORY TO “THE SCARLET LETTER”

It is a little remarkable, that though disinclined to talk over much of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my personal friends, an autobiographical impulse should twice in my life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public. The first time was three or four years since, when I favored the reader, inexcusably, and for no earthly reason, that either the indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imagine, with a description of my way of life in the deep quietude of an Old Manse. And now because, beyond my deserts, I was happy enough to find a listener or two on the former occasion, I again seize the public by the button, and talk of my three years’ experience in a Custom-House. The example of the famous “P. P., Clerk of this Parish,” was never more faithfully followed. The truth seems to be, however, that, when he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him, better than most of his schoolmates or lifemates. Some authors, indeed, do far more than this, and indulge themselves in such confidential depths of revelation as could fittingly be addressed, only and exclusively, to the one heart and mind of perfect sympathy; as if the printed book, thrown at large on the wide world, were certain to find out the divided segment of the writer’s own nature, and complete his circle of existence by bringing him into communion with it. It is scarcely decorous, however, to speak all, even where we speak impersonally. But, as thoughts are frozen and utterance benumbed, unless the speaker stand in some true relation with his audience, it may be pardonable to imagine that a friend, a kind and apprehensive, though not the closest friend, is listening to our talk; and then, a native reserve being thawed by this genial consciousness, we may prate of the circumstances that lie around us, and even of ourself, but still keep the inmost Me behind its veil. To this extent, and within these limits, an author, methinks, may be autobiographical, without violating either the reader’s rights or his own.

It will be seen, likewise, that this Custom-House sketch has a certain propriety, of a kind always recognized in literature, as explaining how a large portion of the following pages came into my possession, and as offering proofs of the authenticity of a narrative therein contained. This, in fact, a desire to put myself in my true position as editor, or very little more, of the most prolix among the tales that make up my volume, this, and no other, is my true reason for assuming a personal relation with the public. In accomplishing the main purpose, it has appeared allowable, by a few extra touches, to give a faint representation of a mode of life not heretofore described, together with some of the characters that move in it, among whom the author happened to make one.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!