The Scarlet Letter (Bantam Classics)
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
List Price:
Our Price: $0.75
You Save: $3.20 (81%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Nathaniel HawthorneEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1981-03-01
ISBN: 0553210092
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780553210095
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Book Reviews of The Scarlet Letter (Bantam Classics)
Book Review: The Scarlet Letter: A brilliant story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Summary: 5 Stars
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is probably his best known work. Hester Prynne is the wearer of the scarlet A, ornately sewn by her own hand. The letter is punishment for the crime of adultery in Massachusetts during Colonial times. Hester's husband has been missing and presumed dead but she's born a child by another man. She refuses to name the man responsible and carries the burden of their sin on herself. Hester's treatment is unfair, and, in her own way, she punishes the villagers by not hiding her shame. She wears the letter openly, refusing to hide it. This brilliant story raises a number of fascinating moral questions, in addition to giving more than a glimpse into what life was once like, in an earlier day.
Summary of The Scarlet Letter (Bantam Classics)
The familiar characters of Hawthorne's dark tale of pride and guilt in colonial New England are given new and added immediacy in the 24 wood engravings by master illustrator Barry Moser.Amazon Exclusive: Editorial Director Elda Rotor on Classics That Never Go Out of Style
Dear Amazon Readers:
Penguin Classics is pleased to publish three new Penguin Classics Deluxe editions of Wuthering Heights, The Scarlet Letter and Pride and Prejudice, with covers designed by world-renowned fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo.
With Penguin's history of excellence in book design and following the success of our continued series of award-winning deluxe editions with covers by leading graphic and comic artists, we wanted to explore another inspiring world of design for Penguin Classics. Roseanne Serra, our art director for this series, which we call in-house the Couture Classics, had the vision of inviting fashion illustrators to create specially commissioned art work. My first choice of an artist to ask was Ruben Toledo, whose work I have admired since I was a student combing through pages of the earlier incarnations of Paper and Details magazines. I always found his drawings of women dressed in the latest styles to be so imaginative, whimsical and surreal, that they could be characters out of beloved novels.
Ruben agreed to draw these three covers, each in a different medium of ink, watercolor or pencil, because he was attracted to the idea of creating covers for a younger generation of Penguin Classics readers and to promote literacy. They are "not your mother's Bronte" as Glamour tagged the set. Our hope is that these vibrant covers will entice general readers and students with an interest in design to delve into the stories that inspire these artistic creations. We hope that book lovers, those that cherish the old-school feel of a physical book, who love book design, fonts, and the all-around aesthetics of a beautiful book, will want all three.
Cathy and Heathcliff, Hester and Pearl, and Elizabeth and Darcy are the literary muses for these covers, and readers will enjoy Ruben's interpretations of these classic characters plus the mood, texture, and scenery inspired by them. From front to back cover, extending even to the French flaps, each cover represents a refreshing representation of the classic work through Ruben's unique artistic sensibility.
The fun of these covers is that they reiterate that classics are relevant for every generation, especially the latest one. Liesl Schillinger for the New York Times blog identifies the fun in seeing the aesthetics of today's youth embodied in Toledo's art: "Was Heathcliff--the wild child of Wuthering Heights--a 19th-century emo boy? Can you picture Jane Austen's Lizzy Bennet as a Regency gossip girl, and Darcy as her Mr. Big in knee breeches? And what about Hester Prynne--was she Nathaniel Hawthorne's idea of a colonial yummy mummy?" Nylon first blogged about Toledo's series, and the tongue-in-cheek challenge to judge a book by its cover: "While his surreal take on the Yorkshire moors or his Technicolor vision of Hester Prynne might not change the actual details of the plot, they certainly add a stylish edge to book club mainstays."
 |  |  |
I've heard that people love the Wuthering Heights cover because it exudes the same dark Gothic sexiness of Twilight's Edward and Bella. (How perfect that Bella herself reads Wuthering Heights for advice on her own love life.) Toledo's details capturing Cathy's persona are mesmerizing, and the chic mysteriousness of Heathcliff peering above his collar captures the perfect bad-boyfriend tone.
The stark black and white Pride and Prejudice cover in silhouette is precise yet witty. (I love the chair on the back cover.) Ruben has a little extra for readers of Pride and Prejudice with a frontispiece of extra "accessories" for the cover's characters.
But my personal favorite is The Scarlet Letter cover. I love the gossiping women, who extend to the French flaps of the cover, emphasizing the size of Hester's scandal. For the font-crazed, Ruben creates various fonts of the letter "A" tacked along the fence. The rose bush, a classic image that appears in 19th-century illustrated editions, is the perfect anchor to this modern interpretation. Look at the ravishing Hester entangled by the mark she must wear on what might be a cashmere sweater dress with an utterly intimidating Pearl in tow in what could be Wolford baby tights. With such alluring images, who wouldn't be compelled to read these novels?
What went through Ruben's mind in creating these covers? Ruben discussed his process with Women's Wear Daily, "I did approach each story as abstract images--visual quotes from a dream. As I read, I was playing the animated movie in my head. These masterpieces are all so well written."
We hope you enjoy all three books. We hope they spark your imagination and stir up passion for the classics, for Penguin Classics, so timeless and trend-setting, they never go out of style.
Best wishes,
Elda Rotor
Editorial Director, Penguin Classics
Hawthorne, Nathaniel Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Hawthorne, Nathaniel Books
The Blithedale Romanceby Nathaniel Hawthorne
Tark Classic Fiction; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Best Known Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Kessinger Publishing's Rare Mystical Reprints)by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Kessinger Publishing, LLC; Published: 2003-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.84
Price in other shops:
Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales (Oxford World's Classics)by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1999-04-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.96
Price in other shops:
Four Classic American Novelsby Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Herman Melville
Signet Classics; Published: 1969-04-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales (Norton Critical Editions)by Nathaniel Hawthorne
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 1987-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
The Hawthorne Treasury: Complete Novels and Selected Tales (Modern Library)by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Modern Library; Published: 1999-03-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $49.99
Rappaccini's Daughterby Nathaniel Hawthorne
ReadHowYouWant; Published: 2007-11-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.99
Nathaniel Hawthorne : Tales and Sketches (Library of America)by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Library of America; Published: 1982-05-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.00
Price in other shops:
CENTENARY ED WORKS NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE: VOL. X, MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE (Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Vol 10)by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Ohio State University Press; Published: 1974-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.99
Price in other shops:
Twenty Days with Julian and Little Bunny by Papa (New York Review Books)by Nathaniel Hawthorne
NYRB Classics; Published: 2003-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.36
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Scribner; Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.91
Price in other shops:
New Century Handbook, The (Book Alone) (4th Edition)by Christine A. Hult, Thomas N. Huckin
Longman; Published: 2007-01-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $35.00
Price in other shops:
Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions)by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dover Publications; Published: 1993-10-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.78
Price in other shops:
Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions)by Henry David Thoreau
Dover Publications; Published: 1993-05-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnby Mark Twain
CreateSpace; Published: 2009-04-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.15
Price in other shops:
Bartleby and Benito Cerenoby Herman Melville
Dover Publications; Published: 1990-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.53
Price in other shops:
Washington Square (Penguin Classics)by Henry James
Penguin Classics; Published: 2007-12-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Othello (Dover Thrift Editions)by William Shakespeare
Dover Publications; Published: 1996-06-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Wuthering Heights: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)by Emily Bront?
Penguin Classics; Published: 2009-08-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.93
Price in other shops:
Pride and Prejudice: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)by Jane Austen
Penguin Classics; Published: 2009-08-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.16
Price in other shops: