finished on november nineteenth
what the fuck. this is just one of those books that i started on something like a year ago but only got around to finishing it yesterday. also, i think i left the book at my grandparents’ place or misplaced it so i had to download a .pdf version, which is never fun for anyone, really. so in conclusion, the journey towards finishing this book was paved with shit.
i can’t say anything that has never been said before. traditional for a book from this era, every single scene is elaborated to the point where even sunshine and woodland creatures are given characteristics. i don’t mind really because it’s not like i haven’t read my fair share of classics before but nathaniel hawthorne really takes the cake for elaboration. or maybe there’s some other book i have yet to read/forgot about. every single chapter can be condensed into two or three very short sentences and i’m afraid if they were ever to make an abridged version of the book, it’d just be a piece of a4 paper.
anyways, plot is plot and characters are characters. you don’t get too attached because of the here, there and everywhere narration. “moral values” and “insights” on every page (sentence) that i’d rather just leave to classroom discussions. one thing that i did find funny was that, in the book, it’s narrated by someone who lives in hester prynne’s future and a lot of things, like the whole illegitimate child business, wouldn’t have been made into a big of a fuss as it was made into during hester’s times. and here i am reading this and no one would even bat an eyelash at unwed mothers nowadays.
also, like that time when the townies had suspicions regarding roger chillingworth’s stay with rev. dimmesdale. i thought that the suspicion was that they were engaging in homosexual activities. the townies actually thought that roger chillingworth was a demon. apparently that’s as bad as gossip got around that time.
tag: that isn’t actually the edition of the book i read. i read one of those really cheap rm10 editions that you can get at book xcess but like i said, i lost it, and i’ve tried googling it to no success.
