The Scarlet Letter, 270 pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne

"In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbors."

"There was a remarkable intelligence in his futures, as of a person who had so cultivated his mental part that it could not fail to mould the physical to itself, and become manifest by unmistakable tokens."

"It may be less soothing than a sinless conscience. That I cannot give thee."

"But there's a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the  more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it."

"Youthful men, not having taken a deep root, give up their hold of life so easily!"

"All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world, whose great heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him, the Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving!"

"Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feelings of hostility."

"[I]t is true, the propensity of human nature to tell the very worst of itself, when embodied in the person of another, would constrain them to whisper the black scandal of bygone years."

"None; unless it avail him somewhat, that he was broken down by long and exquisite suffering; that his mind was darkened and confused by the very remorse which harrowed it; that, between fleeing as an avowed criminal, and remaining as a hypocrite, conscious might find it hard to strike the balance; that it was human to avoid the peril of death and infamy, and the inscrutable machinations of an enemy; that, finally, to this poor pilgrim, on his dreary and desert path, faint, sick, miserable, there appeared a glimpse of human affection and sympathy, a new life, and a true one, in exchange for the heavy doom which he was now expiating. And be the stern and sad truth spoken, that the breach which guilt has once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal state, repaired."

••• § ••• 

I read this for my English 11 class, and I loved it. It's become a favorite. I do have a thing for classics, and I read this closely so I loved it more and more with each chapter. You need to know the time period, historically and literally, and the basic Puritan beliefs for the context to settle but the story is really engaging and yet sad. Hawthorne's writing, as my English teacher put it, is not "skimmable." You have to pay close attention and soak it all in. I had my own copy (pictured below) so I could highlight and sticky note as much as I wanted, and I suggest you get your own copy too, because Hawthorne connects some things so well, it's beautiful. The attention to detail, the symbolism, the imagery, and the characterizations are all well-crafted and it sort of becomes a scavenger hunt for the reader to find the dots here and there and connect them. So, if you are up for a challenge, I would recommend reading it!

Also, Hawthorne uses a plethora of dashes in his writing. He doesn't spare you. I think he might have had a dash-shaker and just poured it all over his writing, but it's not a negative, you just have to get used to his thought process. Second also, you might see more dashes in my future writing, if it becomes unbearable, please let me know.