Good read or "muh poor food" bullshit?
Foid*
>>23322279It's great so long as you separate it from the reading schools typically give of it. It's not some early feminist story about a poor girl being ostracized for no good reason. Hawthorne clearly expresses that Prynne's punishment is justified. Pearl is used as a tool to directly chastise her and Dimmesdale for the sins they've committed. Just because the "antagonist" is also judged for his wrongdoings doesn't mean that the other two get a free pass. They're all sinners.
>>23322299I haven't read this since high school and barely remember any of it. I remember it was very dense reading.
I liked Young Goodman Brown and read Hawthorne's biography for a book report and those were good. The Scarlet Letter in brief sounds like the most awful book ever written but knowing the author a little better, I suspect it might be good
>>23322304Sometimes I wish Hawthorne would've just been an essayist instead. Stuff like The Old Manse doesn't just rival, but surpasses Emerson. At times he reminds me of a sort of American Goethe. It's sad that most people nowadays only know him for The Scarlet Letter.
>>23322304I like The Scarlet Letter a lot, but I think The House of the Seven Gables is his best long work.
