Megan Marshall on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
"Armor starts with an A."
He Didn't Make This Up: The Lives Underneath The Scarlet Letter
America reads The Scarlet Letter once at sixteen and flees. Marshall, biographer of Hawthorne's own household, reopens it with the lives underneath.
Read the introduction →- 1 More My Book Episode 1 • 15 min • Members
- 2 The Letter in Red Tape Episode 2 • 18 min • Members
- 3 A Sweet Moral Blossom Episode 3 • 15 min • Members
- 4 She's Not Going to Say Episode 4 • 15 min • Members
- 5 The First Wrong Episode 5 • 16 min • Members
- 6 This Is Her Walden Episode 6 • 15 min • Members
- 7 I Have No Heavenly Father Episode 7 • 15 min • Members
- 8 A Nickname for Margaret Episode 8 • 17 min • Members
- 9 Under One Roof Episode 9 • 13 min • Members
- 10 It Is Done Episode 10 • 14 min • Members
- 11 No Law for Her Mind Episode 11 • 15 min • Members
- 12 Room to Breathe Episode 12 • 16 min • Members
- 13 A Consecration of Its Own Episode 13 • 15 min • Members
- 14 The Forgotten Art of Gaiety Episode 14 • 16 min • Members
- 15 A Field, Sable Episode 15 • 15 min • Members
- 16 To Live Is to Bear Secrets Episode 16 • 14 min • Members
In Conversation With – Where this book meets another
Prison and Cemetery
Margaret Atwood watches a revolution devour its makers in real time. Megan Marshall watches one win, settle, and build a prison and a graveyard first.
Go deeper →The Scarlet D
Boston sewed Hester's A in cloth; New York pinned Ellen's D in whispers. Marshall and Gay show which mark a woman can work, and it isn't the polite one.
Go deeper →Two Kinds of Nonconformity
Hester breaks the world's law in her mind; Thoreau breaks it with his feet. Marshall and Kaag on what deciding your own law actually costs.
Go deeper →The Abdicating Creator: What You Make and What You Refuse to Claim
Victor flees his creature; Dimmesdale hides his child. Gordon and Marshall read both novels' verdict: what a maker refuses to claim festers and returns.
Go deeper →The Monstrous Woman: Art, Sin, and the Women Who Refused to Break
Shelley was called perverse, Hester branded a sinner — Gordon and Marshall trace one machinery punishing women who broke the rules and didn't break.
Go deeper →
The Questions these books keep starting →
What Does the A on Hester's Chest Actually Mean?
The A never holds still: adulteress at the scaffold, able and armor at the cottage, awe by the end — Marshall tracks a symbol its makers couldn't control.
Go deeper →Did Hester Prynne Sin Alone?
No — and Marshall reads Hawthorne's suspended question as widening the guilt past Dimmesdale and Chillingworth to the whole community standing in judgment.
Go deeper →Is The Scarlet Letter a Feminist Novel?
Yes, Marshall argues: Hawthorne put Margaret Fuller's feminist theory in Hester's mind, atoning for a family history of silencing women — blind spots and all.
Go deeper →- Was Charlotte Lucas Right to Marry Mr. Collins? Sadie Stein on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
- What Does the A on Hester's Chest Actually Mean? Megan Marshall on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
- Was Thoreau Selfish? The Question of Self-Reliance John Kaag on Henry David Thoreau's Walden
- What Is Kant's Categorical Imperative? Paul Guyer on Immanuel Kant