Sunday 25 August 2013

Book Review: The Scarlet Letter (A Guide to)

Hawthorne's <i>The Scarlet Letter</i>

About Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

We’ve all heard about the classics and assume they’re great. Some of us have even read them on our own. But for those of us who remain a bit intimidated or simply want to get more out of our reading, Crossway’s Christian Guides to the Classics are here to help.
In these short guidebooks, popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken takes you through some of the greatest literature in history while answering your questions along the way.
Each book:
  • Includes an introduction to the author and work
  • Explains the cultural context
  • Incorporates published criticism
  • Contains discussion questions at the end of each unit of the text
  • Defines key literary terms
  • Lists resources for further study
  • Evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview
This guide opens up the signature book of American literature, Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, and unpacks its universal themes of sin, guilt, and redemption.

My Reflections:

This little book holds a handy little guide to the original book of the Scarlet Letter. Since the hard copy book boasts 200 pages of action paced material this guide would be helpful for Christians to get more meaning out of the book as a study guide tool.

The study guide is just shy of 75 pages long, and starts with an introduction and then goes chapter by chapter. I thought the study or reflection questions were quite good.

As I have only watched the movie the scarlet letter and not read the book It was a little hard to get the most out of this study, but that being said I thought this book would make a handy reference for homeschooling moms and older teens who are wanting to delve a little deeper into this classic novel.

Other "Christian Guides to the classics" include: Homer's The Odyssey, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Shakespeare's MacBeth.
Others, Dicken's Great Expectations and Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress are coming Spring 2014.

This may be just what you are looking for in your classroom, simple, concise and compact.

I recommend you check it out at Crossway (www.crossway.org/blog) here:

http://static.crossway.org/excerpt/christian-guides-to-the-classics/hawthornes-the-scarlet-letter-download.pdf

I received this book free of charge from Crossway and Homeschool Book Review Program in exchange for my honest review. Thank you Crossway!

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