![]() ![]() When Fields’ wife later asked about it, Hawthorne’s response was simple: “I threw that in the fire, put it up the chimney long ago never thought anybody would care for it.” Composition had not been a happy task, as Hawthorne struggled mightily to imbue a fundamentally moral tale with some of the wisest, most heartfelt narration in the history of the novel. ![]() That full handwritten draft, famously, no longer exists. Set in 17th-century New England, The Scarlet Letter follows Hester Prynne, whose love affair with a clergyman-and subsequent pregnancy-lead her hypocritical Puritan neighbors to shame and shun her. Fields, in February 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne washed his hands of the manuscript that would become his most famous novel. Yet I deserve some credit for refraining from making this half so ugly as I might.” Thank God, it is off my mind! My next story shall not be such a hll-fired one. “I send you the remainder of The Scarlet Letter and hope you will like it as well the preceding part. ![]()
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