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La Letra Escarlata
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La Letra Escarlata
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La Letra Escarlata
Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

La Letra Escarlata

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

La apasionante historia de una mujer condenada a llevar sobre su ropa una A escarlata, por haber cometido adulterio, no solo era un agudo analisis de la sociedad seudo-moralista en que vivia el autor sino ademas una obra de argumento interesante, con un profundo retrato de personajes y cuya grandeza nadie ha discutido.
LanguageEspañol
Release dateJan 1, 2001
ISBN9781611553352
Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and biographer. His work centres on his New England home and often features moral allegories with Puritan inspiration, with themes revolving around inherent good and evil. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, Dark romanticism.

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Reviews for La Letra Escarlata

Rating: 3.3929018438413365 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

7,185 ratings151 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one of the most beautifully and intelligently written works I have ever come across. It's just brilliant.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was required reading for English class. Now that I think about it--it does seem odd that a school would have us reading about a woman being punished for adultery--well, the adultery part in a school book seems odd--though if they were going to have us read about adultery, I don't find it so odd that they would have it be this book. I remember our teacher saying "if you're reading the Cliff Notes, you already know who the baby's father is"--and it was true! The Cliff Notes did reveal the baby's father long before the book did. (But I won't reveal who it was here to avoid any spoilers.)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one of the best books I "had" to read in high school. I think it had something to do with teaching me how wrong it is to judge others.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    yawwwn, shutup hester. not hester.. shutup nathaniel.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm not a big Classics fan but I do try to read a few each year. This time my Book Club chose A Scarlet Letter because of the Puritan connection and Thanksgiving time-frame. I had never read this book even in high school though I thought I knew the basics. There were aspects of the story to which I was unaware and it added a bit to the story IMO. However, the treatment of anyone - man, woman, or child - in manner, saddened me so I think that it did give me a greater reason to be thankful for the blessings I have.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This mid 19th century American classic novel is very much set within the ethos and mores of the Puritan community in New England in the mid 17th century. A young woman Hester Prynne with a baby (Pearl) is humiliated by the community and marked with the eponymous letter A for adultery (though the word is never used in the book). The story is about her relationship with her daughter, with an old doctor who is revealed to be her ex-husband, and with the clergyman who is Pearl's father. The story is told within a framework narrative, with an over-long introduction describing the author's personal experiences working in a custom house, where he purported to have found old documents describing Hester's story. Hawthorne is clearly sceptical of the grim joylessness of extreme Puritanism, when he describes one of their rare festive events thus: "Into this festal season of the year ............the Puritans compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity; thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday, they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities at a period of general affliction." The novel is very well written and needs to be read in relatively small doses truly to appreciate the language, though it is short at only 138 pages.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    No fan of this classic. I get why it's considered a masterpiece, but it also seems to me as if the biggest fans judge from a position where the moral of a story is more important than the story itself.Over the course of this novel, we sadly get to know nothing of the inner workings and conditions of the characters, nothing but what the few, very reduced and stilted lines of dialogue reveal of which each additionally gets commented on by the narrator. This narrator is so far detached from the events and the persons who were involved that the whole thing reads like a historical report, with the additional effect that the characters have no nuances or real personalities. Everyone, men and women alike (though apart from Hester, women don't play any important part anyway) are Puritans and nothing else - only concerned with their soul's salvation, their morals and most of all the morals of others, with nothing distinguishing them from each other or giving them individuality. Hester herself is obviously different, but even with her we get to know nothing about her motivations and development, the reasons why she acts like she acts. The only character who breaks the mould is Pearl, and only because she's consistently described as different and weird.These shortcomings are actually a real pity, because I really liked the story itself, as a thought experiment and insight into a society that is . The theme of shame, stigma and the way how a society is held together by common morals give the frame for a tale that is, with the view of a modern reader, unbelievably full of bigotry, mercilessness, sexism, self-pity and factitiousness. Unfortunately, the way Hawthorne handles it, it's more like a sermon to be preached from a pulpit than a story to be told at a campfire. Cautionary and lecturing instead of entertaining, and no effort was made to combine both.On the topic of style, I guess Hawthorne really loved to hear himself talk. The introductory "Custom House" sketch took 1,5 hours in the audio version and nearly caused a dnf tag. There was no substance, nothing with any tangible insight, just rambling and digressing and going off on tangents that ultimately went nowhere, preferrably in run-on sentences that put half a dozen ideas into a single paragraph.Yes, I know, it's the style of the time and I can't expect modern efficiency in storytelling in a novel from 1850. Actually, I don't even want to. And still, it's so far over the top that it becomes tedious very fast. Pride and Prejudice is from 1813, and stylistically it's so much more varied and interesting, with real dialogue where not every line gets a comment and real characters the reader can understand and relate to.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of the best classic books I've read.This book seriously got me thinking about the terms of sexism and feminism. The story was very easy to follow, and just overall a great read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I first read The Scarlet Letter in high school. I read it again about ten years later. After learning an ancestor's wife, although not the one from whom I descend, likely inspired Hawthorne's story, I became interested in the story again and read it about a dozen years ago. This summer AudioSync offered a free download of the version narrated by Donada Peters. I really enjoyed the listening experience. Although the narrator's voice was British, she did a great job narrating the colonial New England Puritan story featuring a woman forced to wear a scarlet A upon her breast. The father the Rev. Arthur Dimsdale suffered more than she because he failed to publicly confess his sin. The woman's husband, living under the assumed name of Roger Chillingsworth, was the clergyman's doctor and tormentor. The classic story reads differently than modern novels, but never fails to provide material for thought. It continues to be studied in schools because of its ability to be discussed. I enjoyed my revisit to Puritan New England through this audio production.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I had put off reading this book for a long time because the reviews for it were not always glowing. I finally decided that this is an American classic and I needed to read it. Besides, I teach about the time period, and spent a full day at the Old Manse where Hawthorne wrote it down in Concord two summers ago.

    I am glad I read this book but was not overly impressed. I got the feeling that Hawthorne was pretty darned impressed with himself and his writing ability. The story is famous so I won't spend time reviewing the plot or anything, but I have to say that a majority of the book was spent flushing out the thoughts and psyches of the main characters. I understand that the book was full of symbolism and was a criticism of society in many ways, but as a novel, it did not really keep me turning the pages.

    I would recommend this for serious readers or for students of early American history. It is not a light read, and I would suggest reading it in one or two sittings because it is tough to gear up and come back to day after day.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Somehow I'd never read this book in school, and recently picked it up. I was surprised at the sophistication of the characters' psychology.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I know it's a "classic", but I thought it was only average.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    First time reading this verified American classic tale. While short, I found it very ponderous and uneven. The Introductory sketch of the Customs House was very long winded and fell far short of being interesting. My appetite picked up as we started into the well known story of Hester and the Scarlett Letter "A". Most of the book was overwritten and flowery for my taste, but I do acknowledge passages of brilliant prose and a mystically gothic ambiance. There were a lot of diversions and descriptions of forests, brooks, and the town along the way. Not the most enjoyable read for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fascination story of punishment and the different ways that people can deal with it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It's a great historical reconstruction of the Puritan world in early New England, apart from its literary qualities which are also plenty. However, its fame owes a lot to the strong cultural lobby the ever powerful America carries over the world - for the same period there are hundreds of far more important and interesting authors in Europe.
    If high schoolers and obviously, American literature graduates, will be forcefed it, nineteenth century literature is maybe the quintessential era of writing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A really good story. Of course reading a classic is also like reading a different language. I struggled at times but got the gist of what they were saying (or Hawthorne's passages). It was helpful to read the introduction section by Nancy Stade.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It is always a bit disturbing reading books like this one that remind one of just how easy it could be for our modern, somewhat enlightened society to devolve into the brutish, closed-minded world our ancestors knew.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A classic!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book in high school. I should probably read more of N.H.'s books. This is a captivating read and rings so true even today.
    Great book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It's been decades since I read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, but I thought it would be interesting to listen to it while I cross stitch Christmas gifts. I had mercifully forgotten that Mr. Hawthorne had blathered on about his job and colleagues at the Custom House before he even started the story of Hester Prynne, Although the sketch of the Custom House and its employees isn't bad, I grew impatient to get to the real story. I'm not saying one should skip the entire first CD -- it does reach the point where our author finds the papers of Jonathan Pine and the old scarlet letter near the end. I just want to prepare you.The discussions about sin, guilt, remorse, and penance along the way are interesting, but the attitude of Salem townspeople toward Hester is infuriating, as is Pearl's father's cowardice and Hester's husband allowing the lust for vengeance to poison his soul. Hester was too self-sacrificing where Pearl's father was concerned. He wasn't worthy of her love. I don't care how guilty he felt because the town thought him a godly man when he was the sinner whose identity they tried to get from Hester. He still let her bear all the public infamy that belonged to both of them. Hester's husband was just as bad for placing all the blame for his behavior on her partner in adultery. He refused to take responsibility for freely choosing evil over forgiveness.You'll probably recognize human behavior that is still present, such as making up tidbits of gossip and refusing to believe the truth when told it.The book does provoke thought, but it also provoked considerable anger in this reader, at least.I liked Ms. Gibson's narration.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Primero vi la pelicula con Demi More, y ahora el audio libro. Es una obra con final triste. Pero es mejor el libro.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    “Hawthorne is the most consummate literary artist in American literature, and The Scarlet Letter is the greatest book ever written in the Western Hemisphere. It is not relatively, but absolutely great; it holds its place among the fifteen best nevels of the world”- William Lyon Phelps, professor of English Literature at Yale and Methodist preacher, from the 1926 introduction to The Scarlet Letter.I can’t bring myself to offer praise as effusive as William Lyon Phelps does in the above quote. I find the book's overt moral judgement and tendency to “tell rather than show” to be detractions from its reputation for greatness. And, I suspect that even as the learned professor wrote his 1926 introduction, The Scarlet Letter was already firmly established as the bane of Literature classes. Its dense sentences and 17th century Puritan setting can work to make it remote and unwelcoming to readers. Yet it continues to be an established American classic, ranking high on many modern lists of great American novels, just as it is still taught in high schools and colleges even now.The story is a familiar one. In the Puritan settlement of Boston in the 1640s Hester Prynne is publicly shamed for her sin - conceiving and bearing a child outside of marriage. Hester refuses to identify the child’s father. For her sin and her obstinance she is publicly shamed and forced to forevermore wear a prominent mark to signify her shame - the scarlet letter A. In attendance at her shaming as the full story starts are the other three main characters. In her arms is her “sin born” daughter Pearl. Helping to preside over her sentence is the Puritan preacher Dimmesdale - Pearl’s father whose reputation Hester is shielding - who makes his own choice not to reveal himself. Lastly, there is a new arrival to town, recently escaped from bondage to the Indians, who is later revealed to be Hester’s husband Roger Chillingworth.As the book progresses, we see the impact of the repressive Puritan culture on Dimmesdale, Hester and Pearl, and the scheming designs of Chillingworth. Dimmesdale is riven with guilt and anguish at his sin. The Puritans were Calvinists and believed that only the “Select” will get to Heaven. Those who sin here on earth give evidence that they are not among the Select. Dimmesdale's sins, he is sure, have made him unworthy of his role as preacher, and marked him as bound for hell. Chillingworth, who no one knows is Hester’s husband, exacts his revenge by inveigling his way into Dimmesdale’s life, preying on his guilt. Pearl looks fated to grow up unhappily among a colony of people who will think the worst of her no matter what she may do, while Hester will surely die of shame.But instead, Dimmesdale and Chillingsworth wither away and pay the ultimate price for their sins. Pearl escapes the clutches of the colony with her mother and returns to Europe where she will be well wed. Hester, after seeing to Pearl’s future, returns to Boston to voluntarily take back up the wearing of the scarlet letter. Only now she wears it without the shame its sentence was meant to give. Hawthorne is considered a Romantic, and an anti-Puritan. His own family were early settlers in Salem and some of his anti-Puritanism was no doubt personal and familial. It’s no coincidence then, that the object of Puritan shaming should gain the strength to stand up for herself and her daughter. But the other sinners who were not ill-treated by the Puritans do not escape the consequences of their sins - Dimmesdale for his lack of purity and Chillingsworth for his acts of revenge. Hawthorne was also given to writing stories with strong moral metaphors, and that is certainly true with The Scarlet Letter. The metaphors basically hit you over the head in this novel.It has long been popular. On its publication in 1850 The Scarlet Letter became an instant hit. It was one of the first mass produced books in the US, and its initial print run of 2500 copies sold out in ten days. It has scarcely had a day out of print since.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    La historia es interesante,pero no logra del todo cautivar,me hubiera gustado conocer un poco más de la relación de Hester con el ministro,para poder entenderlos más y el motivo que la mantuvo tanto tiempo en silencio
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    El encuentro con uno mismo puede abrir caminos no imaginados el amor es la única respuesta.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I originally read this book in high school. I reread it now, with two more decades of life experience. I've lived among Christians who revere the Puritan era. I've experienced social shunning. I'm a male living in the #MeToo era where one sin of sexual harassment can lead to career demise.

    In all of these situations, however, I side with Hawthorne's sympathies towards those who bear the brunt of social shunning. Or at least, I try to side. If social order must be enforced (and social order in the case of a pregnancy is an extreme but common example), then it must be enforced loosely. That's what prohibition, abortion, and the rest of the culture wars have taught us. It is foolishness to fight human nature.

    At the same time, those who are persecuted are often ennobled by their suffering, as Hester Prynne and Pearl were by theirs. The Scarlet A became not a sign of Adultery but of Ability for Hester. Hawthorne holds her up as a model, and I follow her willingly against those (on whatever side of the left/right/center cultural battles) who hold that purity ought to be externally enforced all the time.

    It is a tenuous foundation that we sit upon as Americans. We are often blind to the purity-seekers who more-or-less agree with us. Although we are considered a free country, we often bind up our fellow citizens in our quest for purity. Indeed, in so doing, we act like our forebears. Hawthorne reminds us of this well. Puritan New England is not that far away from us today.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this book when I was in first year university, when I was just starting to get into classics.

    I bought this edition because it was really cheap, only $6.00 or so. So if I didn't like it, what did it matter? But I did like it - I absolutely loved it.

    The writing style was a little bit difficult to get into at first, the language is a little bit antiquated but it became easier to read. (I also hadn't read too too many classics at the time, so I was still getting accustomed to the language.)

    But I thought it was a worthwhile read. Hawthorne is a such a beautiful writer - I loved watching the characters' lives unfold, and I loved getting to know Hester. She's a brilliant heroine, a single mother, and there's something unassuming and brave about her. I love reading books about women and female characters and their lives, and this book was no exception.

    Hawthorne is a classic, gothic, romantic American writer, and I really, really liked this book. I thought it would be good, just like any other classic, but I didn't know how much I'd really enjoy it. c:
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Muy bonita obra y esta relatada muy clara y la vos del narrados es linda.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read The Scarlet Letter (as an e-book) because my daughter (high school junior) was reading this in class. All I knew beforehand was that this is a famous classic novel and that the main character's name is Hester Prynne and that she wears a scarlet A indicating she was an adulterer.I guessed almost right away who her baby's father was. I wonder how shocked people back in the day were when they read this revelation (which happens later in the novel), and/or if they guessed as quickly as I did.Some bits were interesting, but too much of this read like sermonizing and went on and on. This is not a classic that struck a chord with me. My daughter feels pretty much the same way as I do.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is about a woman who has just been released from prison after being charged for adultery. She has to wear the letter "A" on her as her punishment so everyone will know. The story carries on to her being pregnant and explaining what happens to her and the baby within the next seven years.Teach how to not pass judge anyone without getting to know them. Not caving into what society wants.High School
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I somehow managed to avoid being assigned The Scarlet Letter in high school, but since it is such a well-known text (and frequently cited as one of the most important works of early American literature) I decided that I should give it a read.

    My problems with the book started early with the unnecessarily long establishment of a frame narrative. Hawthorne uses the first forty pages of the book largely to discuss life as an employee in a Customs house, something which has no discernible connection to the main story (if there had been such a connection, I'm sure Hawthorne would have pointed it out). There's nothing wrong with a frame narrative, but the same effect could have been accomplished in a tenth the number of pages. This problem reoccurs throughout the text.

    The next issue I had manifested immediately after the main story proper starts, when it is revealed that Hawthorne has decided to begin the narrative after the most interesting events have already occurred. Hawthorne paints as best he can a picture of a Puritanical society where religion comes first, and a main character who is supposed to be no pushover. Depicting how a woman like Hester deals with the feelings that she develops for her minister in such a world is potentially fascinating, and provides a way of showing the conflict between personal and societal values, but instead whatever occurred in Hester's mind that led her to the most central (albeit undepicted) event of the narrative is never disclosed.

    Instead of an interesting character study we get an opening that offers a quick glimpse of the scorn the people of Boston heap onto sinners, which would also have been an interesting path for the narrative to take- the suffering inflicted upon a woman by others in service of a faith that emphasizes love and forgiveness- but the story quickly jumps forward in Hester's life to a point where the village has largely grown to accept her because of her pious actions (and it is even stated that her ostensible ignominy has led to her skills with a needle being more highly sought after).

    The story's opening also introduces Hester's husband, a character who paradoxically is perfectly forgiving of Hester for cheating on him but who then devolves into a mustache-twirling villain for the rest of the text. His evil plan mainly seems to center around giving his target, the minister, very effective medical care mixed with subtle suggestions that the minister isn't a great person- bwa ha ha ha! The husband also represents a wasted narrative opportunity, as instead of exploring the way the husband uncovers who has cuckolded him, the story just chalks it up to the husband being insightful.

    There are other problems with the story telling- Pearl is not in any way a realistic or interesting child character, the minister suddenly turns evil for a few pages for no sufficiently good reason, etc.- but the most central flaw of The Scarlet Letter is that Hester, who should be a dynamic female character, is instead relegated to a largely passive figure who goes about suffering her punishment with a stiff upper lip and swallowing the pain caused by everyone, including her child. One wonders how Hester ever had the nerve to engage in a relationship with her minister when it takes her seven years to even tell said minister that the man living with him and feeding him mysterious mixtures is her husband out for revenge. In a story ostensibly about her, Hester is flat and boring, occasionally blaming herself for her lot and otherwise not doing much besides serving as a quiet, suffering martyr, though there is an incongruous line about her feeling jealousy.

    All of this is exacerbated by Hawthorne's prose, which is overwritten without painting much imagery or communicating anything with subtlety. I found little beauty in the language, even when the subject was rosebushes, a dell in the woods where a young girl plays in a stream, or the various costumes of the sailors and soldiers assembled in the town square. The latter example highlights how Hawthorne's book would have been better with some serious cuts: he describes at length the various groups attending the Election Day gathering despite the fact that he doesn't do it in an interesting manner and it is of no import for the story. At times my eyes glazed over reading this book, and it quickly became a struggle to force myself to go back and actually read the words, as the odds that I had missed anything important seemed slim.

    In sum The Scarlet Letter squanders the parts of its narrative that were potentially interesting, contains characters that are either boring, unrealistic, or nonsensical, and all this is communicated through some truly sub-par writing. My heart goes out to all the high school students who are being forced to read this, and to those who have to teach it as well.