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illinoise 's review for:
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne you crazy bitch you've done it again!
this might've been a five star, I have to think on it more... it's very flawed and there are many things I have mixed feelings about, but my god it compels me. these characters and their relationships all absolutely captivated me and Hawthorne's writing (though other reviewers vehemently disagree) is breathtakingly beautiful TO ME... so many of the scenes and images in this book are so haunting. will think about Arthur/Hester/Pearl all standing on the scaffold together under a meteor forever. and that forest scene! augh! AUGH! I also just always love a good dissection of Puritan insanity, it's a guilt and policing stronger than any other and the way that its consequences play out across all these characters is so well wrought. one thing about me, I love American romanticism/gothic so much forever and ever.
"It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his subject."
this might've been a five star, I have to think on it more... it's very flawed and there are many things I have mixed feelings about, but my god it compels me. these characters and their relationships all absolutely captivated me and Hawthorne's writing (though other reviewers vehemently disagree) is breathtakingly beautiful TO ME... so many of the scenes and images in this book are so haunting. will think about Arthur/Hester/Pearl all standing on the scaffold together under a meteor forever. and that forest scene! augh! AUGH! I also just always love a good dissection of Puritan insanity, it's a guilt and policing stronger than any other and the way that its consequences play out across all these characters is so well wrought. one thing about me, I love American romanticism/gothic so much forever and ever.
"It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his subject."