Nathaniel Hawthorne

[historybuff234]

I am sometime going to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's classics The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter. I am just not sure which to read first. I was thinking The House of the Seven Gables, but I will probably read them both at one point. One of my friends read The Scarlet Letter and he hated it, although I think it still sounds good.

[Wildflower]

I would reccommend The Scarlet Letter although I am anxious to read other peoples opinions on this. I have tried to get into The House of The Seven Gables twice in my life. Once in High School and once after a trip to Massachusetts and I saw the House. I could not get into the book either time. I loved The Scarlet Letter though. I was pretty young both times that I tried to read THOTSG. I wonder if I should try again.

[historybuff234]

Thanks, I will probably buy both to read this summer. I never knew that THOTSG was based on a real house. Sounds like that would make it kind of spooky to see the house. I am also interested to read other opinions on this.

[Melissa_W Moderator]

If you're buying both, BN is having a buy-2-get-1 sale on paperback BN Classics (online right now). THOTSG and TSL are both available in paperback editions, and I'm pretty sure you could find a third looking at your summer reading list you posted in the Community Room.

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historybuff234 wrote:
Thanks, I will probably buy both to read this summer. I never knew that THOTSG was based on a real house. Sounds like that would make it kind of spooky to see the house. I am also interested to read other opinions on this.

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Message Edited by pedsphleb on 05-16-200709:14 PM

[katknit]

I love both of these books. I think High School English classes do a disservice to many great books that really require maturity to understand and appreciate them. House of 7 and Scarlet are 2 such books. I've reread them and always find something new.

[historybuff234]

katknit wrote:I love both of these books. I think High School English classes do a disservice to many great books that really require maturity to understand and appreciate them. House of 7 and Scarlet are 2 such books. I've reread them and always find something new.

My best friend is in High School, and he showed me what he will be taking next year. In the list was English Literature, and I was horrified. It only goes from the Middle Ages and ends in the 18th century! I couldn't believe it, maybe that is how all High School English Literature classes are. I am home-schooled so I really don't know much about regular schools though. I just can't believe that it ends at teh 18th century, in my view right after then literature in Great Britian really takes off.

[katknit]

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historybuff234 wrote:
katknit wrote:I love both of these books. I think High School English classes do a disservice to many great books that really require maturity to understand and appreciate them. House of 7 and Scarlet are 2 such books. I've reread them and always find something new.

My best friend is in High School, and he showed me what he will be taking next year. In the list was English Literature, and I was horrified. It only goes from the Middle Ages and ends in the 18th century! I couldn't believe it, maybe that is how all High School English Literature classes are. I am home-schooled so I really don't know much about regular schools though. I just can't believe that it ends at teh 18th century, in my view right after then literature in Great Britian really takes off.

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English lit has a lot to recommend it, but I feel that teens are neither interested nor equipped to deal with most of it. Stuff I read in HS and hated, I reread as an adult and absolutely loved. It's a whole different experience when you are mature enough to take the time and expend the patience needed to understand these works. Shakespeare, I believe, is ruined for mant people because teachers expect students to read him.His plays were meant to be seen rather than read, and a lot of the life leaches out when all you do is read the scripts.

[historybuff234]

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katknit wrote:

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historybuff234 wrote:
katknit wrote:I love both of these books. I think High School English classes do a disservice to many great books that really require maturity to understand and appreciate them. House of 7 and Scarlet are 2 such books. I've reread them and always find something new.

My best friend is in High School, and he showed me what he will be taking next year. In the list was English Literature, and I was horrified. It only goes from the Middle Ages and ends in the 18th century! I couldn't believe it, maybe that is how all High School English Literature classes are. I am home-schooled so I really don't know much about regular schools though. I just can't believe that it ends at teh 18th century, in my view right after then literature in Great Britian really takes off.

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English lit has a lot to recommend it, but I feel that teens are neither interested nor equipped to deal with most of it. Stuff I read in HS and hated, I reread as an adult and absolutely loved. It's a whole different experience when you are mature enough to take the time and expend the patience needed to understand these works. Shakespeare, I believe, is ruined for mant people because teachers expect students to read him.His plays were meant to be seen rather than read, and a lot of the life leaches out when all you do is read the scripts.

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Well see most teens aren't interested, but I am! I do agree with you on Shakespearre, his plays were meant to read but watched. Although you can read them! I am going to maybe read them this summer. I have put in my book order and The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables are in it.

[kerrylee]

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historybuff234 wrote:
I am sometime going to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's classics The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter. I am just not sure which to read first. I was thinking The House of the Seven Gables, but I will probably read them both at one point. One of my friends read The Scarlet Letter and he hated it, although I think it still sounds good.

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Hi Historybuff234.
In my opinion (sorry, I can't get the hang of the abbreviations on the computer), The Scarlet Letter is a must-read for anyone interested in American Classics. I've never read anything by Nathaniel Hawthorne, although he's on my list. I can't imagine English Lit ending during the 1800's. There are so many classics written after that I don't see how you could possibly get a comprehensive view of literature. What about Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dreiser, Steinbeck & Robert Penn Warren alone? For me (like I've mentioned before) Norman Mailer and Lawrence Schiller's The Executioner's Song (which is billed as a true-life novel),is a classic even though it based on true events. The style of the book is written as a novel.
I can't imagine narrowing down any type of Classics to a finite time period. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Take care.

[SALi]

I've read the Scarlet Letter and it was ok. I probably would have liked it better if it wasn't an assgined reading book for my english class (it really kills a book to hear it be read out loud with 20 other high schoolers).
I really prefer his shorter stories like Young Goodman Brown or the Birthmark.

[historybuff234]

Hey everybody, I have some bad news. When I was putting in my book order a few days ago(I did say before I had already in my book order I meant I was going to that day and never got around to it) my mom said that she wanted to look at my book order to be sure everything was appropriate. She immmediatly said when she saw The Scarlet Letter, "you will not read The Scarlet Letter, perhaps in a few years but not now." Well, my book order began out as a huge 17 book order has now disentegrated down to just a few. I have not put the order in yet, but it kind of was a let-down. The thing that surprised me even more was that she didn't approve of Charles Dickens's classic Bleak House. Oh well, guess I'll remove those ones and buy a few more Jules Verne books for the summer. I am thinking about not ordering The House of the Seven Gables, what do you here think?

[Everyman]

I can sort of understand why strict parents would question The Scarlet Letter, but I wonder whether she has ever actually read the book, or whether she is judging on what others say about it. But Bleak House? What is supposed to be the problem with this book? I am curious about her reasons for objecting to it. Do you have the sort of relationship where you can ask for information's sake, not implying a challenge to her authority?

[historybuff234]

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Everyman wrote:
I can sort of understand why strict parents would question The Scarlet Letter, but I wonder whether she has ever actually read the book, or whether she is judging on what others say about it. But Bleak House? What is supposed to be the problem with this book? I am curious about her reasons for objecting to it. Do you have the sort of relationship where you can ask for information's sake, not implying a challenge to her authority?

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About The Scarlet Letter, I am not sure if she has ever read it. I am home-schooled and the cuuriculum that we use has The Scarlet Letter in the 9th-12th grade reading "recomened for book reprots list". I was a bit taken by surprise about it, but does The Scarlet Letter teach a moral lesson? I was horriefied about Bleak House though. She said the reason why she didn't approve of Bleak House was that the illegimate child and Lady Deadlock. She also thinks that the book is completly about love and beautiful Lady Deadlock. But I know that the whole book isn't about love. She thinks that a 13 year-old has no interest in reading something about love, which I don't have interest to read book completly about love. Like, A Tale of Two Cities that is about love I think, but she would probably be fine with me reading that and I would like to read it. And I do have a relationship where I can ask her something without a chalenge to her authority as my mom. I love my mom dearly, it's just that very rarely we don't see eye to eye on things.

[Everyman]

historybuff234 wrote: About The Scarlet Letter, I am not sure if she has ever read it. I am home-schooled and the cuuriculum that we use has The Scarlet Letter in the 9th-12th grade reading "recomened for book reprots list". I was a bit taken by surprise about it, but does The Scarlet Letter teach a moral lesson?

Well, it teaches whatever one takes from it, which is perhaps ducking the question, but isn't really since I have seen people take from books things that I never in my wildest imaginings have seen in them.

But for my reading, it has less to do with strict morality and more with the conflict between individual morality and public moral strictures, revenge and cruelty and how they affect people, and courage and the lack thereof.

I was horriefied about Bleak House though. She said the reason why she didn't approve of Bleak House was that the illegimate child and Lady Deadlock. She also thinks that the book is completly about love and beautiful Lady Deadlock.

Well, yes, Bleak House is about love (as well as many other things), but so are Pride and Prejudice, Macbeth, and many of the Peanuts comic strips. It's almost impossible to design a reading curriculum that isn't about love in some way, shape, or manner. Which is a very different thing from sex, which Bleak House isn't about.

[historybuff234]

Yes, I agree with you their about love. It's hard to make a good story without love. What you said about sex and being a different thing from love makes sense. I am not sure, but I think that my mom thinks that anything in classic literature that is about love has sex in it. Which I don't agree with, some things mgiht have it in it, but not everything. When I was telling her about how Plato's Dialogues were divided up when she heard that part of it was love in it she instantly said, "Is that wholesome reading? Is it appropriate?" Maybe I should tell her that things that terribly offended morals in the Victorian era was banned or changed. Well at least I think it was. Thanks Everyman you have helped me quite a bit over the time I have been here at BN.

Message Edited by historybuff234 on 06-04-200705:10 PM

[kerrylee]

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historybuff234 wrote:
Yes, I agree with you their about love. It's hard to make a good story without love. What you said about sex and being a different thing from love makes sense. I am not sure, but I think that my mom thinks that anything in classic literature that is about love has sex in it. Which I don't agree with, some things mgiht have it in it, but not everything. When I was telling her about how Plato's Dialogues were divided up when she heard that part of it was love in it she instantly said, "Is that wholesome reading? Is it appropriate?" Maybe I should tell her that things that terribly offended morals in the Victorian era was banned or changed. Well at least I think it was. Thanks Everyman you have helped me quite a bit over the time I have been here at BN.

Message Edited by historybuff234 on 06-04-200705:10 PM

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Hi Historybuff234!

I've never encountered any kind of restrictions in my reading (my parents trusted mr and my sisters enough to read age-appropriate books and if we wanted to read adult books, that was usually fine as long as they scanned them and didn't find anything explicit or overly violent.

This is just a thought, but have you tried asking her to read these books with you (maybe out loud to each other, perhaps)? That way she could explain what she felt was offensive, yet you could still read and form your own opinions. During the times these books were written, I don't recall anything that could be categorized as explicit or even sexy in the mildest way. And they can be used to teach moral lessons, if one chooses to use them in that way. Watching a 30 second commercial (if you watch t.v.), is far more explicit than these books.

Anyway, try to give it a shot. If you invite her to participate and make her feel you generally ae inteested in her thoughts, maybe she'll re-think the situation.

Take care. Happy reading. Good Luck!

[kerrylee]

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historybuff234 wrote:
Yes, I agree with you their about love. It's hard to make a good story without love. What you said about sex and being a different thing from love makes sense. I am not sure, but I think that my mom thinks that anything in classic literature that is about love has sex in it. Which I don't agree with, some things mgiht have it in it, but not everything. When I was telling her about how Plato's Dialogues were divided up when she heard that part of it was love in it she instantly said, "Is that wholesome reading? Is it appropriate?" Maybe I should tell her that things that terribly offended morals in the Victorian era was banned or changed. Well at least I think it was. Thanks Everyman you have helped me quite a bit over the time I have been here at BN.

Message Edited by historybuff234 on 06-04-200705:10 PM

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Good Morning again, historybuff234,

I'm just writing to see if you'd had a chance to try out the suggestion I'd made about you and your Mom reading to each other in regards to The Scarlet Letter and other books (like Bleak House). Not every book you read has to have a morality lesson in it. Some are just for pure plesure. This also might be woth discussing. You mentioned you are being homeschooled. What degrees, if any, does your Mom have?
If you are moving to a new state will you be in the public school system? I think that might be quite a difficult transition to make, because you'll probably be way ahead of everyone. Maybe you can work something out where they can give you more advanced, college-oriented work. It's never to early to start.

Anyway, try to think about some of this. Maybe it'll turn out to be helpful in the long run. I'm just sort of guessing. But I know from experience that being deadly bored every day is not a plesant way to pass the time!

Take care. Happy reading!

[MacIan]

That's awesome that you're home schooled!

If it would help, perhaps you should have your mom give the English department at the home schooling place a call. Then she and a counselor could discuss the book and why the home schooling place recommends it on a reading list.

[sunny4328]

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katknit wrote:
I love both of these books. I think High School English classes do a disservice to many great books that really require maturity to understand and appreciate them. House of 7 and Scarlet are 2 such books. I've reread them and always find something new.

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The House of Seven Gables isn't taught in my district, simply because it's really too dull for most high school kids. However, The Scarlet Letter is a must read for all AP students because it's tested so much on the exam. So try not to hold it against English classes too much. It's a necessary evil.

[sunny4328]

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kerrylee wrote:

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historybuff234 wrote:
I am sometime going to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's classics The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter. I am just not sure which to read first. I was thinking The House of the Seven Gables, but I will probably read them both at one point. One of my friends read The Scarlet Letter and he hated it, although I think it still sounds good.

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Hi Historybuff234.
In my opinion (sorry, I can't get the hang of the abbreviations on the computer), The Scarlet Letter is a must-read for anyone interested in American Classics. I've never read anything by Nathaniel Hawthorne, although he's on my list. I can't imagine English Lit ending during the 1800's. There are so many classics written after that I don't see how you could possibly get a comprehensive view of literature. What about Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dreiser, Steinbeck & Robert Penn Warren alone? For me (like I've mentioned before) Norman Mailer and Lawrence Schiller's The Executioner's Song (which is billed as a true-life novel),is a classic even though it based on true events. The style of the book is written as a novel.
I can't imagine narrowing down any type of Classics to a finite time period. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Take care.

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Start with Hawthorne's short stories, then ease your way into the novels. Young Goodman Brown is a great start.