The Scarlet Letter: A Romance
- Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850
Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850. First edition. Very Good. Original publisher's cloth binding stamped in gilt and blind. A Very Good copy of this American masterpiece. Some chipping at the spine ends, and a short split to the cloth at the rear spine fold. Professional repairs to that outer joint and spine ends (no new material added). Internal contents generally clean and attractive. First issue with "reduplicate" error on p. 21 and the publisher's ads dated March 1850 at the front of the work. Front inner hinge starting, rear hinge professionally repaired. Housed in a custom slipcase with chemise.
Hester Prynne, publicly punished as an adulterer when she bears a child out of wedlock, refuses to name the father of her daughter; instead, she lives life in her village, wearing a mandatory scarlet A as a sign of her shame. Though Hester's body betrays her secret, in pregnancy and motherhood, her honesty and public acknowledgement of her daughter brings her greater redemption than the two men in her life. For years, the Reverend Dimmesdale struggles in secret with his guilt at allowing Hester to bear punishment alone for their affair. And her cruel, estranged husband (alias Roger Chillingworth) becomes morally bankrupt in his desperate search to uncover and name her lover, the unknown father of Pearl. A classic of American literature. Very Good.
Hester Prynne, publicly punished as an adulterer when she bears a child out of wedlock, refuses to name the father of her daughter; instead, she lives life in her village, wearing a mandatory scarlet A as a sign of her shame. Though Hester's body betrays her secret, in pregnancy and motherhood, her honesty and public acknowledgement of her daughter brings her greater redemption than the two men in her life. For years, the Reverend Dimmesdale struggles in secret with his guilt at allowing Hester to bear punishment alone for their affair. And her cruel, estranged husband (alias Roger Chillingworth) becomes morally bankrupt in his desperate search to uncover and name her lover, the unknown father of Pearl. A classic of American literature. Very Good.