A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana

The Scarlet Letter
nathaniel Hawthorne
Portuguese edition‑Dom Quixote,
Biblioteca Lobo Antunes, 2009
America’s most
unpopular writer
82
By cLArA pinTo cALdeirA
The Scarlet Letter is one of the books António
Lobo Antunes chose to include in a collection
aimed at giving the general Portuguese
public access to the world’s most timeless
classics. The work, which was translated by
Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, contains
a preface by Lobo Antunes and an introduction
by Georges Monteiro.
Originally published in 1850, The Scarlet
Letter is considered Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
masterpiece. Erratic and indecisive,
Hawthorne wrote obsessively throughout
prolonged periods of his life, and then
abandoned the activity for long stretches
of time. He is known for having commented,
“Who would publish anything for
me, the most unpopular writer in America?”
The self-effacing quote was recounted by
James T. Fields, who encouraged Hawthorne
to write the book. A partner in the publishing
company that printed the novel, Fields
had resolved to invest in the still-unfinished
work, which he erroneously announced
would be a collection of short stories like
the popular Twice Told Tales Hawthorne had
previously written. When The Scarlet Letter
debuted in the fortunate form of a novel,
the first 2,500 copies sold out in ten days.
The novel is a story within a story, or a tale
beyond a story. Hawthorne starts out with
a semi-autobiographical sketch entitled
“The Custom House,” in which he details
his stultifying stint at Salem’s port authority
at a time in his life when creative writ-
BooK revieWs
‘ When The scarlet Letter debuted
in the fortunate form of a novel,
the first 2,500 copies sold out
in ten days. The novel is a story
within a story, or a tale beyond
a story. Hawthorne starts out with
a semi-autobiographical sketch
entitled “The custom House,”
in which he details his stultifying
stint at salem’s port authority
at a time in his life when
creative writing seemed beyond
his reach.
’
ing seemed beyond his reach. But it is in
this stand-alone account of the old Salem
port that so eerily evokes colonial New
England, while being a portrait of contemporary
civil service that the writer reveals
how The Scarlet Letter was born. He discovers
an embroidered red letter on a tattered
piece of cloth and an account of the scarlet
letter written by a 17 th century customs
surveyor.
The bulk of the story takes place in
Puritan New England during the 1600s.
Hawthorne has now enticed us into
believing that the main characters were
really of flesh and blood. There is woman
condemned to wear the infamous letter
“A” for adulteress on her bosom, which
she herself has ostentatiously and masterfully
embroidered – almost with pride
– and must always wear when she walks
through the small town that has stigmatized
her, as she bears the humiliation
with resignation and dignity. There is a
child, graced with physical beauty and a
transcendent spirit, both devilish and
angelic, a living, blatant testimony to the
transgression of her mother who maintains
a majestic silence about the man who
led her to sin. There is a kindly preacher,
of exemplary behavior, who is adored by
a cruel, hypocritical population and tormented
by abysmal suffering; and an
enigmatic stranger who, in obscurity, harbors
a story, an epoch, and a pain bred in
innate darkness.
The Scarlet Letter can be read simply as a
tale of crime and punishment, good and
evil, sin and redemption. But Hawthorne
has crafted it into a portrait of human
nature, a paean to subtle dignity, a stunning
love story, and a reflection on symbolism
and the relationship between the individual
and the society in which he lives.
Yet the book is also a painstaking, almost
stifling reconstruction of a social reality
that went into founding America and its
national identity. “It is curious that a novel
which is so American in its essential plot
could touch people of such different cultures
with its interplay of emotions and
intrigues,” comments Lobo Antunes in the
preface. It is also curious that Nathaniel
Hawthorne, born a short 40 years after the
Declaration of Independence, was the
descendant of a judge at the infamous
Salem Witch Trials. Henry James stated that
the Scarlet Letter was “the finest piece of
imaginative writing yet put forth in the
country.” Although it deals with a setting
that is long gone, The Scarlet Letter is timeless
and universal.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011