"I read this book as part of my background reading on the Gothic for my A level exams, and it left me asking two questions when I'd finished, first, how is this even slightly Gothic?"
"Horrible. The worst book I've ever read. In my experience classic books are the worst out there. They are generally poorly written, too wordy and lack entertaining plot devices."
"I'm reading this for English III... I want to barf. Maybe if he actually spoke in English when he wrote this..."
"Terribly overrated
Had to teach Scarlet at high school level and found it terribly dull. Do yourself a favour and consider an alternative."
"The story may have had some merit however the writing style was so archaic and verbose that it took 50 words to complete a sentence. After trudging through about 100 pages he never came to any points or conclusions other that some people can remember what they ate 20 years ago in detail. This guy (Nathaniel Hawthorne) could have competed with Marry Shelly for most long-winded of the year. Some of it may not be his fault due to the writing style of the time but we surly do not have to put up with this.
This is one time that just about any movie exceeds the book. If you insist on reading then it may be smart to find a child's version. Son one could get rich translating the book into today's English."
"Hawthorne's writings are dull, dry, and other words that mean bad that start with D. The character's a boring."
"Three hundred some odd pages just to tell the reader that she had sex with the preacher's wife and had his baby?"
"Most likely, of you're reading this, you haven't read this book, in which case, I firmly believe you are the smartest person on the planet for not sujecting yourself to such torture. The Scarlet Letter is summed up, in my opinion, as a short story turned novel. How was this done, you ask. Well, boys and girls, Hawthorne did the only thing he knew: added useless, boring details, symbolism, and overly annoying figurative devices. This had to have been written for the purpose of decoding in an English class, because that is truly all it is good for. Honestly, I have a complete, no-details-missing summary for you:
Hester has affair and baby
inner tuemoil of whether or not to tell boytoy's identity
enter hubby, with issues to spare
inner turmoil
hubby is pissed
inner turmoil
boytoy ill with guilt
boytoy confesses
Yay, its over! What a great story!
Yeah right. I wouldnt actually know. A plot was difficult to find among all the flowery shit. What with my eyes watering and nose running, I was pretty unsure of a plot.
What? Im allergic to flowers."
In staunch opposition to the style I will simply say I agree with everyone here.
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