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Article: Fables and Gables; Tracing Hawthorne's `Scarlet Letter' and Other Sites
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- September 17, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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"It is either very good or bad -- I don't know which," author
Nathaniel Hawthorne told his publisher, James T. Fields, when he
reluctantly handed over his unfinished copy of "The Scarlet Letter"
in a cold stairway leading from his third-story study. Fields hurried
to catch a train for Boston, read the manuscript "all aglow with
admiration," and the following day made arrangements for publication.
The year was 1849.
Next month, the latest Hollywood version of this American classic
(there have been four others) will blaze on silver screens, and
Hawthorne's powerful tale of adultery, guilt and redemption, which
became a bestseller in its day, will have another chance to speak to
audiences. The ...