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Title: The Scarlet Letter
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Engraver: A. V. S. Anthony
Illustrator: Mary Hallock Foote
Ludvig Sandöe Ipsen
Release date: May 5, 2008 [eBook #25344]
Most recently updated: July 15, 2025
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25344
Credits: Markus Brenner, Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET LETTER ***
THE SCARLET LETTER.
BY
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
Illustrated.
[Illustration]
BOSTON:
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
LATE TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.
1878.
COPYRIGHT, 1850 AND 1877.
BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE AND JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.
_All rights reserved._
October 22, 1874.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Much to the author's surprise, and (if he may say so without
additional offence) considerably to his amusement, he finds that his
sketch of official life, introductory to THE SCARLET LETTER, has
created an unprecedented excitement in the respectable community
immediately around him. It could hardly have been more violent,
indeed, had he burned down the Custom-House, and quenched its last
smoking ember in the blood of a certain venerable personage, against
whom he is supposed to cherish a peculiar malevolence. As the public
disapprobation would weigh very heavily on him, were he conscious of
deserving it, the author begs leave to say, that he has carefully read
over the introductory pages, with a purpose to alter or expunge
whatever might be found amiss, and to make the best reparation in his
power for the atrocities of which he has been adjudged guilty. But it
appears to him, that the only remarkable features of the sketch are
its frank and genuine good-humor, and the general accuracy with which
he has conveyed his sincere impressions of the characters therein
described. As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or
political, he utterly disclaims such motives. The sketch might,
perhaps, have been wholly omitted, without loss to the public, or
detriment to the book; but, having undertaken to write it, he
conceives that it could not have been done in a better or a kindlier
spirit, nor, so far as his abilities availed, with a livelier effect
of truth.
The author is constrained, therefore, to republish his introductory
sketch without the change of a word.
SALEM, March 30, 1850.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE CUSTOM HOUSE.-INTRODUCTORY 1
THE SCARLET LETTER.
I. THE PRISON-DOOR 51
II. THE MARKET-PLACE 54
III. THE RECOGNITION 68
IV. THE INTERVIEW 80
V. HESTER AT HER NEEDLE 90
VI. PEARL 104
VII. THE GOVERNOR'S HALL 118
VIII. THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER 129
IX. THE LEECH 142
X. THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT 155
XI. THE INTERIOR OF A HEART 168
XII. THE MINISTER'S VIGIL 177
XIII. ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER 193
XIV. HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN 204
XV. HESTER AND PEARL 212
XVI. A FOREST WALK 223
XVII. THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER 231
XVIII. A FLOOD OF SUNSHINE 245
XIX. THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE 253
XX. THE MINISTER IN A MAZE 264
XXI. THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY 277
XXII. THE PROCESSION 288
XXIII. THE REVELATION OF THE SCARLET LETTER 302
XXIV. CONCLUSION 315
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
_Drawn by_ MARY HALLOCK FOOTE _and Engraved by_ A. V. S. ANTHONY. _The
ornamental head-pieces are by_ L. S. IPSEN.
PAGE
THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 1
THE PRISON DOOR 49
VIGNETTE,-WILD ROSE 51
THE GOSSIPS 57
"STANDING ON THE MISERABLE EMINENCE" 65
"SHE WAS LED BACK TO PRISON" 78
"THE EYES OF THE WRINKLED SCHOLAR GLOWED" 87
THE LONESOME DWELLING 93
LONELY FOOTSTEPS 99
VIGNETTE 104
A TOUCH OF PEARL'S BABY-HAND 113
VIGNETTE 118
THE GOVERNOR'S BREASTPLATE 125
"LOOK THOU TO IT! I WILL NOT LOSE THE CHILD!" 135
THE MINISTER AND LEECH 148
THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT 165
THE VIRGINS OF THE CHURCH 172
"THEY STOOD IN THE NOON OF THAT STRANGE SPLENDOR" 185
HESTER IN THE HOUSE OF MOURNING 195
MANDRAKE 211
"HE GATHERED HERBS HERE AND THERE" 213
PEARL ON THE SEA-SHORE 217
"WILT THOU YET FORGIVE ME?" 237
A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE 249
THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE 257
CHILLINGWORTH,-"SMILE WITH A SINISTER MEANING" 287
NEW ENGLAND WORTHIES 289
"SHALL WE NOT MEET AGAIN?" 311
HESTER'S RETURN 320
THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.
[Illustration: The Custom-House]
THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.
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 favored 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 Next |