Reviews - La Letra Escarlata

5.27k reviews for:

La Letra Escarlata

Nathaniel Hawthorne

3.19 AVERAGE

makenzieblack002's review against another edition

3.0

emotional slow-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mckennasweet's review against another edition

1.0

i literally read this to put myself to sleep

arielmagicesi's review against another edition

3.0

Uggggghhh fine. It was fine. I probably would've hated it if I'd read it in English class as a teenager, but I read it by choice as an adult just in case I ever have to teach it in English class to teenagers, so I'm fine with it. Like... Hawthorne is undoubtedly a good writer, and there are plenty of passages that stand out as incredibly well-written, and some parts intrigued and entertained me (the fucking part where Hester gets invited to dance with the devil and she's like "omg I TOTALLY would but I just got my soul saved, so sorry to miss, rain check?" cracked me up) (also the bit where they're in the woods and the A falls on the ground when Hester and the reverend actually fucking TALK to each other) but for the most part it was just SUCH A BORING STORY. Like we GET it, Puritanism, symbolism, guilt, adultery, five billion ways to repeat these points, bleh. Hester was not at all an interesting character. I wish we'd seen more of her and the reverend's feelings for each other and her lust and guilt rather than her masquerading as a good little martyr for like 85% of the book. Idk. If I had been Hawthorne's editor I would've been ruthless with the red pen.

nerdywriter36's review against another edition

3.0

I'm glad that I finally got to this classic. While the story was interesting, the writing style made it pretty difficult to read, and I found myself skipping large chunks of scene description or unnecessary detail so that I could get back to the story-telling or dialogue that actually mattered. I also underestimated how much talk of religion/God/the Devil there would be in this story, but that's my own fault because I didn't clue into the fact that this was 18th-century Boston following Puritans, so that should have been obvious. It didn't take away from the story for me, but there was just a lot of it. Plus the dialogue with all the 'thee' and 'thou' sort of made me feel like I was reading Shakespeare, which didn't help my interest (Shakespeare has never been my cup of tea). Overall, though, it wasn't a bad book and I'm glad that I can say I've read it.

t8r's review against another edition

5.0

Wonderful book! The characters beautifully highlight the quintessence of human nature without a wasted word. The plot and writing style, contrary to what I've been told, are quickly paced and energetic. The pain, more specifically the emotion, that Hawthorne captures with this story is almost too much to bear.
Reading this book has definitely affected my life for the better.