Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter

Why did the local rural library acquire the English-language The Scarlet Letter (affiliate link) in 1959? The book is in surprisingly good condition considering its age, so it probably hasn't been borrowed much.

I had not read this classic of world literature, although I refer to it in one of my stories. So it was about time I read it.

What is The Scarlet Letter about? Hester Prynne is a fallen woman who, as punishment for her crime, has to wear a red letter A embroidered on her clothes for the rest of her life. She refuses to reveal who she committed adultery with.

I thought I would be able to get by with a little since the book was so small, but the pages were full of text and the English was not the easiest. There were too many (landscape) descriptions for my taste, and I skipped most of the text.

All in all, a book that was too fine for me. But I'm not the only one, many modern readers don't know how to appreciate this level of word art.