Friday, May 10, 2013

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Finally, finally, finally, I finished this book. I decided to read The Scarlet Letter because I found this adorable edition at T.J.Maxx (Penguin got a famous fashion illustrator to do the cover) and I figured I should read a "classic". As it turns out, I probably should have waited on this book. I'm not sure if it's because I'm too young that I didn't enjoy this book, or if it's just not my cup of tea and never will be, but I struggled to get through it. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes in such a circuitous, over-wrought fashion, and never really makes succinct points that you have as landmarks in the book. And yes, I know that it's also due to his time period that he writes this way, but I would zone out for whole paragraphs, and when i came back he would still be talking about the same exact thing. There was definitely a lot to analyze in this book, and no doubt it was well written, but I don't really want to go back and try to work with it solely because I honestly can't stand the writing. I know that this is a classic, so I feel a little bit like an ignorant high-schooler putting it down like this, but hopefully I can come back to it in later years and enjoy it more.

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