Love, crime, and revenge are the foundations of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set in a small Puritan community in New England the story focuses on three characters that lives changed based on a forbidden act of passion: Hester Prynne who wears her sin on the breast of her gown, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a young holy minister whose guilt starts to eat him alive; and Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband who seeks revenge on the people who have wronged him.
About the Author:
Nathaniel Hathorne, Jr., was born in Salem Massachusetts in a established Puritan Family. His early education was informal; he was home-schooled until he enrolled into Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Main. After he graduated he came back to Salem and started to write short stories and also changed the spelling of his name form Hathorne to Hawthorne.
On July 9, 1842, he married, Sophia Peabody which they had a daughter, Una, and a son, Julian. They bought a Mansion in Concord, Massachusetts, which had previously been owned by the famous author Louisa May Alcott. Hawthorne often had financial trouble so he worked at the custom house in Salem and Boston. His collage friend Franklin Pierce, who was president, appointed him as U.S. consul at Liverpool, England, Hawthorne served for four years.
Hawthorne did not get much public recognition until after he died. He tried to destroy all copies of his first novel, Fanshawe (1828) but he contributed articles and short stories to newspapers/magazines, which were published in his first collection of Twice-Told Tales (1837). Hawthorne is credited, alone with Edgar Allan Poe, with establishing the American short story.
With publishing The Scarlet Letter it was considered his masterpiece; some people think Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter because of his sense of guilt of what his ancestors' prominent role in the Salem witchcraft trails in the 1690s.
On May 19, 1864, Hawthorne died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, leaving several unfinished novels. He is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
About the Author:
Nathaniel Hathorne, Jr., was born in Salem Massachusetts in a established Puritan Family. His early education was informal; he was home-schooled until he enrolled into Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Main. After he graduated he came back to Salem and started to write short stories and also changed the spelling of his name form Hathorne to Hawthorne.
On July 9, 1842, he married, Sophia Peabody which they had a daughter, Una, and a son, Julian. They bought a Mansion in Concord, Massachusetts, which had previously been owned by the famous author Louisa May Alcott. Hawthorne often had financial trouble so he worked at the custom house in Salem and Boston. His collage friend Franklin Pierce, who was president, appointed him as U.S. consul at Liverpool, England, Hawthorne served for four years.
Hawthorne did not get much public recognition until after he died. He tried to destroy all copies of his first novel, Fanshawe (1828) but he contributed articles and short stories to newspapers/magazines, which were published in his first collection of Twice-Told Tales (1837). Hawthorne is credited, alone with Edgar Allan Poe, with establishing the American short story.
With publishing The Scarlet Letter it was considered his masterpiece; some people think Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter because of his sense of guilt of what his ancestors' prominent role in the Salem witchcraft trails in the 1690s.
On May 19, 1864, Hawthorne died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, leaving several unfinished novels. He is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.