The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Year: 1999

General idea: In a conservative Protestant colonial New England town, a woman has birthed a child out of wedlock with the local minister, and she has to wear an A on her chest to indicate that she’s an adulteress.

Note: Today, I talked out this post with my friend, Val, who sat patiently while I butchered the plot, offering occasional comments like “There’s not a Reverend Parris in this book.”

Details:

• The minister is called Reverend Parris. [Note: This is wrong. That’s The Crucible.] He’s associated with shadows.
• The woman is Hester Prynne and her kid has a noun name, something symbolic and naturey like Willow.
• Someone lives near a river.
• There’s a graveyard scene? [Note: This is wrong. There is a stocks scene.]
• Someone lives in the woods, or moves to the woods.
• Everyone feels very guilty.

Lingering feeling: Boredom. I’m sure this is a masterpiece of early American literature, but unfortunately, I read it at 14 and didn’t get much out of it except for a sense that I should probably memorize all the symbols for the quiz. And also not get pregnant.

 

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The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Here’s a guest post from Elizabeth, an engineer in New Orleans.

Year: 2004, Christmas break sophomore year of college

General idea: Town builds a cathedral.  It takes an incredibly long time.  Many of the people involved are evil.  Some of them are really into Jesus and think the big building will make a huge difference in the townspeople’s chances for eternal salvation.

Details:

• Part of it falls down, at some point.  People feel really angry or really guilty about that.
• Some local leader (baron?) is super evil.  Kills a guy and rapes his wife for not paying some kind of marriage tax.  Might be remembering that from a George R. R. Martin storyline, though.
• There was a power brokering bishop.  And a nice Prior.
• Zero character names.  Only kinda sure it took place in England.  Definitely Europe, probably England.

Lingering feeling: The inefficient building methods made me a bit crazy.  And the book went on forever.  The cathedral seemed like a dumber and dumber idea the longer it took, but nobody could back down after all of the effort others had already put into construction.  I did not get the obsession.

A fun fact for Elizabeth from the editor: In the years since you read The Pillars of the Earth, both a sequel and an eight-part TV miniseries have been released. In case you’d like to relive the magic.

 

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Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Year: 2004

General idea: Hermann Hesse turns the story of the Buddha into a novel.

Details:

• A guy called Siddhartha is the son of a rich man. He renounces wealth and comfort to go on a spiritual quest.
• There’s a lot of sleeping outside, being malnourished, and not wearing very much clothing. Possibly something important involving a tree.

Lingering feeling: I read the entirety of this book while deliriously ill. A few hours after reading it, I went to the hospital. So… the book feels like a dream. But also like a very familiar dream that Hesse basically ripped off. Still not sure this should count as a novel.

 

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