The Scarlet Letter caused quite a stir when it first appeared in February, 1850. The initial printing of 2, 500 volumes sold out within ten days. It was one of the first mass-produced books in America and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time.
The Scarlet Letter – Original February 1850 Uncensored Version is the first incarnation of the book, before Hawthorne added a preface to a second edition of
The Scarlet Letter which was published a month later.
The story tells of Hester Prynne, condemned to wear the red letter A on her breast, as punishment for adultery – and because she resists all attempts of the Boston clergy to make her reveal the name of her child’s father. Prynne’s husband, an old physician who had remained in Europe, arrives in America to see her on the pillory. Assuming the name of Roger Chillingworth, he decides to seek revenge.
Henry James once said of
The Scarlet Letter, ’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.’
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