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THE SCARLET LETTERby NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEthe scarlet letter book INTRODUCTORY TO "THE SCARLET LETTER"
It is a little remarkable, that -- though disinclined to talk
overmuch of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my
personal friends -- an autobiographical impulse should twice in
my life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public.
The first time was three or four years since, when I favoured the
reader -- inexcusably, and for no earthly reason that either the
indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imagine -- with a
description of my way of life in the deep quietude of an Old
Manse. And now -- because, beyond my deserts, I was happy enough
to find a listener or two on the former occasion -- I again seize
the public by the button, and talk of my three years' experience
in a Custom-House. The example of the famous "P. P. , Clerk of
this Parish," was never more faithfully followed. The truth
seems to be, however, that when he casts his leaves forth upon
the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside
his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand
him better than most of his schoolmates or lifemates. Some
authors, indeed, do far more than this, and indulge themselves in
such confidential depths of revelation as could fittingly be
addressed only and exclusively to the one heart and
mind of perfect sympathy; as if the printed book, thrown at large
on the wide world, were certain to find out the divided segment
of the writer's own nature, and complete his circle of existence
by bringing him into communion with it. It is scarcely decorous,
however, to speak all, even where we speak impersonally. But, as
thoughts are frozen and utterance benumbed, unless the speaker
stand in some true relation with his audience, it may be
pardonable to imagine that a friend, a kind and apprehensive,
though not the closest friend, is listening to our talk; and
then, a native reserve being thawed by this genial consciousness,
we may prate of the circumstances that lie around us, and even of
ourself, but still keep the inmost Me behind its veil. To this
extent, and within these limits, an author, methinks, may be
autobiographical, without violating either the reader's rights or
his own. scarlet letter book It will be seen, likewise, that this Custom-House sketch has a
certain propriety, of a kind always recognised in literature, as
explaining how a large portion of the following pages came into
my possession, and as offering proofs of the authenticity of a
narrative therein contained. This, in fact -- a desire to put
myself in my true position as editor, or very little more, of the
most prolix among the tales that make up my volume -- this, and
no other, is my true reason for assuming a personal relation with
the public. In accomplishing the main purpose, it has appeared
allowable, by a few extra touches, to give a faint representation
of a mode of life not heretofore described, together with some of
the characters that move in it, among whom the author happened to
make one.
In my native town of Salem, at the head of what, half a century
ago, in the days of old King Derby, was a bustling wharf -- but
which is now burdened with decayed wooden warehouses, and
exhibits few or no symptoms of commercial life; except, perhaps,
a bark or brig, half-way down its melancholy length, discharging
hides; or, nearer at hand, a Nova Scotia schooner, pitching out
her cargo of firewood -- at the head, I say, of this dilapidated
wharf, which the tide often overflows, and along which, at the
base and in the rear of the row of buildings, the track of many
languid years is seen in a border of unthrifty grass -- here,
with a view from its front windows adown this not very enlivening
prospect, and thence across the harbour, stands a spacious
edifice of brick. From the loftiest point of its roof, during
precisely three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats or
droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of the republic; but with
the thirteen stripes turned vertically, instead of horizontally,
and thus indicating that a civil, and not a military, post of
Uncle Sam's government is here established. Its front is
ornamented with a portico of half-a-dozen wooden pillars,
supporting a balcony, beneath which a flight of wide granite
steps descends towards the street Over the entrance hovers an
enormous specimen of the American eagle, with outspread wings, a
shield before her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a bunch of
intermingled thunder- bolts and barbed arrows in each claw. the scarlet letter CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY page
THE CUSTOM-HOUSE * * * * * 7
CHAPTER l.
THE PRISON-DOOR * * * * * 59
CHAPTER II.
THE MARKET-PLACE * * * * * 62
CHAPTER III.
THE RECOGNITION * * * * * * 75
CHAPTER IV.
THE INTERVIEW * * * * * * 87
CHAPTER V.
HESTER AT HER NEEDLE * * * * * 96
CHAPTER VI.
PEARL * * * * * * * * 109
CHAPTER VII.
THE GOVERNOR'S HALL * * * * * 122
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER * * 131
CHAPTER IX
THE LEECH * * * * * * * 143
CHAPTER X
THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT * * * 156
CHAPTER XI.
THE INTERIOR OF A HEART * * * * 168
CHAPTER XII.
THE MINISTER'S VIGIL * * * * 177
CHAPTER XIII.
ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER * * * * 191
CHAPTER XIV.
HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN * * * 203
CHAPTER XV.
HESTER AND PEARL * * * * * 250
CHAPTER XVI.
A FOREST WALK * * * * * * 219
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER * * 228
CHAPTER XVIII.
A FLOOD OF SUNSHINE * * * * * 240
CHAPTER XIX
THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE * * * 248
CHAPTER XX
THE MINISTER IN A MAZE * * * * 258
CHAPTER XXI.
THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY * * * * 273
CHAPTER XXII.
THE PROCESSION * * * * * * 285
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE REVELATION OF THE SCARLET LETTER * 299
CHAPTER XXIV.
CONCLUSION * * * * * * * 315 |
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