This Norton Critical Edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous and influential novel is based on the 1850 third edition, the text read by most nineteenth-century readers. Also included are the five shorter works most relevant to The Scarlet Letter--"Mrs. Hutchinson," "Endicott and the Red Cross," "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister’s Black Veil," and "The Birth-mark." Each text is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotation.

This Norton Critical Edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous and influential novel is based on the 1850 third edition, the text read by most nineteenth-century readers. Also included are the five shorter works most relevant to The Scarlet Letter--"Mrs. Hutchinson," "Endicott and the Red Cross," "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister’s Black Veil," and "The Birth-mark." Each text is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotation.

"Contexts" includes a rich collection of Hawthorne’s letters and notebook entries. Hawthorne’s attitudes toward politics, especially slavery and abolition, are revealed in a generous excerpt from his campaign biography of his lifelong friend, Franklin Pierce.

"Criticism" provides a sweeping overview of both early and modern commentary on The Scarlet Letter and the five accompanying stories, with emphasis on recent publications and examples of current critical approaches. Among the thirty-seven contributors are Robert S. Levine, Sacvan Bercovitch, Millicent Bell, Nina Baym, Michael T. Gilmore, Larry J. Reynolds, Jean Fagan Yellin, Amy Schrager Lang, J. Hillis Miller, Judith Fetterley, and Leland S. Person.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Preface

A Note on the Texts

The Texts of The Scarlet Letter and

 Other Writings

 THE SCARLET LETTER

  Preface to the Second Edition

  The Custom-House

  The Scarlet Letter

 OTHER WRITINGS

  Mrs. Hutchinson

  Endicott and the Red Cross

  Young Goodman Brown

  The Minister’s Black Veil

  The Birth-mark

Contexts

 Nathaniel Hawthorne · From American Notebooks

 · From Letters

 · From The Life of Franklin Pierce

Criticism

 NINETEENTH-CENTURY REVIEWS OF THE SCARLET LETTER

 Evert A. Duyckinck · From Literary World

 [Edwin Percy Whipple] · From Graham’s Magazine

 [Anne W. Abbott] · From North American Review

 Orestes Brownson · From Brownson’s Quarterly

 [Arthur Cleveland Coxe] · From Church Review

 Amory Dwight Mayo · From Universalist Quarterly

 [Jane Swisshelm] · From the Saturday Visiter

 Robert S. Levine · Antebellum Feminists on Hawthorne: Reconsidering the Reception of The Scarlet Letter

 PURITAN BACKGROUND AND SOURCES

 Charles Ryskamp · The New England Sources ofThe Scarlet Letter

 Michael J. Colacurcio · Footsteps of Ann Hutchinson:The Context of The Scarlet Letter

 Frederick Newberry · A Red-Hot A and a Lusting Divine: Sources for The Scarlet Letter

 Kristin Boudreau · Hawthorne’s Model of Christian Charity

 Ellen Weinauer · Considering Possession in The Scarlet Letter

THE CUSTOM-HOUSE

 John Franzosa * "The Custom-House," The Scarlet Letter, and Hawthorne’s Separation from Salem

 Douglas Anderson · Jefferson, Hawthorne, and "The Custom-House"

THE SCARLET LETFER

 Michael Winship · Hawthorne and the "Scribbling Women": Publishing The Scarlet Letter in the Nineteenth-Century United States

 Laura Hanft Korobkin · The Scarlet Letter of the Law: Hawthorne and Criminal Justice

 Millicent Bell · The Obliquity of Signs: The Scarlet Letter

 David Leverenz · Mrs. Hawthorne’s Headache: Reading The Scarlet Letter

 Stephen Railton · The Address of The Scarlet Letter

 Louise DeSalvo · Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Feminists: The Scarlet Letter

 Robert K. Martin · Hester Prynne, C’est Moi: Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Anxieties of Gender

 T. Walter Herbert, Jr. · Nathaniel Hawthorne, Una Hawthorne, and The Scarlet Letter: Interactive Selfhoods and the Cultural Construction of Gender

 Nina Baym · Revisiting Hawthorne’s Feminism

 Bethany Reid · Narrative of the Captivity and Redemption of Roger Prynne: Rereading The Scarlet Letter

 Sacvan Bercovitch · The A-Politics of Ambiguity in The Scarlet Letter

 Michael T. Gilmore · Hawthorne and the Making of the Middle Class

 Larry J. Reynolds · The Scarlet Letter and Revolutions Abroad

 Jean Fagan Yellin · The Scarlet Letter and the Antislavery Feminists

 Leland S. Person · The Dark Labyrinth of Mind: Hawthorne, Hester, and the Ironies of Racial Mothering

OTHER WRITINGS

 Amy Schrager Lang · Anne Hutchinson

 John Nickel · Hawthorne’s Demystification of History in "Endicott and the Red Cross"

 David Levin · Shadows of Doubt: Specter Evidence in Hawthorne’s "Young Goodman Brown"

 Frederick Crews · Escapism in "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister’s Black Veil"

 J. Hillis Miller · The Problem of History in "The Minister’s Black Veil"

 Judith Fetterley · Women Beware Science: "The Birthmark"

 Cindy Weinstein · The Invisible Hand Made Visible: "The Birth-mark"

Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography