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The Scarlet Letter

Historical Fiction and Romance

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850 and set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then struggles to lead a new life of repentance and dignity, forced as punishment to wear a scarlet letter A for adultery. Containing a number of religious and historic allusions, the book explores themes of legalism, sin and guilt, was one of the first mass-produced books in the United States, and is commonly listed among the Great American Novels. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Classification
Audience
Children's 1
Original Language
English 2
Composed, From (Year)
1850 2
FAQs

Why does Hawthorne call The Scarlet Letter a romance?

Hawthorne means a neutral ground between the real world and fairyland where the actual and the imaginary meet.

The book carries the subtitle A Romance, and Hawthorne uses the word for a particular purpose. In his introduction, The Customhouse, he describes a neutral territory between the real world and fairyland where the actual and the imaginary may meet and each takes on something of the other's nature. Critic Elmer Kennedy-Andrews reads this as the setting for the story, a mix of dreaminess and realism that gave Hawthorne room to explore the novel's major themes.
Connections

Authored By

Source The Scarlet Letter (Wikipedia)

Features Character

In Genre

Source The Scarlet Letter (Wikipedia)
Romance, Genres
Source The Scarlet Letter (Wikipedia)
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Same As

Also in Divinity Atlas: the same subject.

Original Language

Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Source The Scarlet Letter (Wikipedia)tier 2
Sources
1. Open Library: The Scarlet Letter
Open LibrarySubjects
Quote, Subjects
Juvenile fiction
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2. The Scarlet Letter (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850.
  • Lead
    The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850.
  • Lead paragraph
    The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then struggles to lead a new life of repentance and dignity.
  • Authored By: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lead section, authorship
    The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850.
  • In Genre: Historical Fiction, Lead section, genre (historical)
    is a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850
  • In Genre: Romance, Lead section, genre (romance)
    The Scarlet Letter: A Romance
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