Nathaniel Hawthorne, página 8 de 32

Miles Coverdale arrive a Valjoie, où des citoyens de Boston tentent, vers les années 1830, une expérience de vie collective dont il fait ici le récit. Il relate ainsi sa rencontre avec la belle Zenobia mais aussi avec la timide et rassurante Priscilla.

"The finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country." Henry James"[Nathaniel Hawthorne] recaptured, for his New England, the essence of Greek tragedy." Malcolm Cowley"There could be no more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter. D. H. Lawrence"The style of Hawthorne is purity itself. His tone is singularly effective wild, plaintive, thoughtful, and in full accordance with his themes... We look upon him as one of the few men of indisputable genius to whom our country has as yet given birth." Edgar Allan PoeFirst published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthornes masterpiece and one of the greatest American novels. Its themes of sin, guilt, and redemption, woven through a story of adultery in the early days of the Massachusetts Colony, are revealed with remarkable psychological penetration and understanding of the human heart.Hester Prynne is the adulteress, forced by the Puritan community to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and the secret father of her child, Pearl, struggles with the agony of conscience and his own weakness. Roger Chillingworth, Hesters husband, revenges himself on Dimmesdale by calculating assaults on the frail mental state of the conscience-stricken cleric. The result is an American tragedy of stark power and emotional depth that has mesmerized critics and readers for nearly a century and a half.

Illustrator: Marcus Waterman

Trans.: Edwin Grobe

First published in 1835, Young Goodman Brown is a short story by the renowned American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set in 17th century Salem, young Goodman Brown tells his new wife Faith that he must go on a journey, and sets out alone into the woods. There he comes across a mysterious man who isnt all that he seems. As Goodman Brown journeys further into the woods, he witnesses things that will shake the very core of his faith and belief. A tense, symbolic story by the author of The Scarlet Letter.