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teatunesandtales's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Finally finished. While the chapters were short, the book as a whole was a slow crawl. Hawthorne's excessive use of details created lengthy paragraphs that was easy to get lost in the story, and not in a good way. And I've never been more ready to finish the book, and never read the word "ignominy" again.
Puritanicalism is not for the faint of heart. If you can't be perfect, you won't make it in their world.
I loved Pearl's wild heart and imagination. It was a bright spot to the book.
Long love Hester Prynne's legacy.
Puritanicalism is not for the faint of heart. If you can't be perfect, you won't make it in their world.
I loved Pearl's wild heart and imagination. It was a bright spot to the book.
Long love Hester Prynne's legacy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Colonisation, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Infidelity
Minor: Pregnancy
sat0rii's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Although it's technically competent and thematically marvelous, even Robert Jordan's most copious tangents don't come close to Nathaniel Hawthorne's mind-numbing detours. And unlike James Joyce, he's not even funny or whimsical about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Pregnancy
Moderate: Infidelity
jwells's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
Read with the book club of Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone podcast.
I definitely got more out of it this time around than I did in high school. Interesting to see the distance between Hawthorne and the characters he's writing about.
It's hard to take the story seriously in terms of characters. It's constantly popping the reader up to the level of allegory or message, in a somewhat heavy-handed way. Chillingworth in particular is such a caricature of a villain.
Podcasters resisted discussing symbolism or character layers, and therefore didn't have much to say about the book. Lol
I definitely got more out of it this time around than I did in high school. Interesting to see the distance between Hawthorne and the characters he's writing about.
It's hard to take the story seriously in terms of characters. It's constantly popping the reader up to the level of allegory or message, in a somewhat heavy-handed way. Chillingworth in particular is such a caricature of a villain.
Podcasters resisted discussing symbolism or character layers, and therefore didn't have much to say about the book. Lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Racism
Briefly mentioned period typical racist attitudes toward Native Americans.kristinetp's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Would I read it again? No
I love Easy A so thought I'd give the book a go. I did like some parts of it, but I wouldn't really care to read it again. Really enjoy some of the themes though. I also just really felt for Hester the whole time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
anoushka05's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Classism, Infidelity, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Colonisation
kelisabeth's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Sexism
qalshrame's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
this was a headache to get through but i didn’t completely hate it
Content Warnings
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Death, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Sexism
ukponge's review against another edition
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Infidelity
sonmel2910's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry
james1star's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
The story of The Scarlet Letter is somewhat okay and the novel does follow a rather straightforward path starting with a women (Hester) and her baby being released from prison where she’s severed a sentence for adultery. She is made to stand on a scaffold baring a scarlet letter ‘A’ upon her chest where the townspeople of puritan Boston, New England gawk at here. The rev Dinsdale pushes her to reveal the baby’s father (who is himself) but she refuses. In the distance of the market place she see’s her husband who was captured by native Americans and he tells her to not reveal his identity. He then visits her in prison saying he forgives her (I think) and reinvents himself into Chillingworth as a physician with the taste of finding out the baby’s father. Hester then moves to a cottage away from the town and decides to make a living doing needlework and helping the poor as her child, Pearl, grows up. More goes on but then Hester and Dinsdale meet in the forest where he shares his guilt and how he’s an unhappy man, they both forgive each other and plan to sail to England to start a life together. Dinsdale makes his way back to town and now Chillingsworh discovers he’s the father. A few days after it’s Election Day and Dinsdale makes a great speech then comes out and onto the scaffold, reveals his sin in public and dies, Hester and Pearl then leave the colony and we don’t know what happens to the child. Hester returns later still baring the scarlet letter and her grave is placed next to Dinsdale but not too close.
I think that’s the plot and is very simplified (unlike Hawthorn) and I think this is generally okay but I do feel it could have been nicer in a sense. How the narrator, Hester and other people talk to and about Pearl such as ‘elf-child’ or ‘witch-child’ and various names is horrible, she’s only a baby and then little girl and her whole life she has been made ‘othered’ so Yhh, I felt she was very disadvantaged and discriminated against - yes at the time children born out of wedlock were viewed as lesser but I couldn’t jam with it at all. It was hailed at the time as quite revolutionary but it’s definitely not as inspiring to women as I thought it was supposed to be. Mentions of morality, sin and ownership of it are again okay but I dunno not for me.
What I disliked most was the writing style with paragraph-length sentences containing a plethora of syntaxes and messages within. It’s not unreadable but is certainly hard to read. I’m an inexperienced reader of classics so it says more about me then Hawthorn. However, I didn’t like it soooo yhh
I think that’s the plot and is very simplified (unlike Hawthorn) and I think this is generally okay but I do feel it could have been nicer in a sense. How the narrator, Hester and other people talk to and about Pearl such as ‘elf-child’ or ‘witch-child’ and various names is horrible, she’s only a baby and then little girl and her whole life she has been made ‘othered’ so Yhh, I felt she was very disadvantaged and discriminated against - yes at the time children born out of wedlock were viewed as lesser but I couldn’t jam with it at all. It was hailed at the time as quite revolutionary but it’s definitely not as inspiring to women as I thought it was supposed to be. Mentions of morality, sin and ownership of it are again okay but I dunno not for me.
What I disliked most was the writing style with paragraph-length sentences containing a plethora of syntaxes and messages within. It’s not unreadable but is certainly hard to read. I’m an inexperienced reader of classics so it says more about me then Hawthorn. However, I didn’t like it soooo yhh
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity and Sexism