Venue: Online
Date: Tuesday, 4th January 2022
Time: 18:00-19:30

In this session of the Dialogue Society Book Group, we will explore The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne by Isaac Asimov on Tuesday, 4th January 2022.

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The Dialogue Society Book Group - Meeting 39: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Containing a number of religious and historic allusions, the book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

‘There could not be a more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter.’
D. H. Lawrence, (1885 –1930) English Writer and Poet

It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things—an indefinable purity and lightness of conception...One can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art.’
Henry James, (1843–1916) American-British Author

About the Dialogue Society Book Group

The Dialogue Society Book Group explores the capacity of books to provide windows into different cultural and intercultural worlds. We will be choosing a series of quality novels to read and then to discuss together at relaxed, sociable gatherings at the Dialogue Society. Participants are welcome to suggest books for future sessions.

Participants will need to find a copy of the book chosen for each meeting and will need to read it prior to the meeting.

We will have a conversation about the book and our responses to it. Discussion may cover:

• the quality of the storytelling
• the authenticity and accuracy with which a historical/cultural situation is portrayed
• our personal responses to it

You do not need to be an expert on literature or anything else to join in. The group should be enjoyable for anyone who enjoys a good book and likes discovering new ones.

Prospective books for future sessions (NB we are open to suggestions)

• An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
• When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka
• The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain