Contains a collection of reviews and critical essays on The scarlet letter.

"Written in 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a gripping portrayal of seventeenth-century Puritan society. Though recognized as a work of fiction, Hawthorne's tale accurately captures the paranoia surrounding the Salem witch trials. In this volume of essays, leading critics analyze Hawthorne's classic story as it relates to gender, Puritanism, Eden, and the American psyche. Book jacket."--Jacket.

"In this provocative and thought-provoking volume, Christopher Leise sheds new light on modern American novelists who question not only the assumption that Puritans founded New England--and, by extension, American identity--but also whether Puritanism ever existed in the United States at all. The Story upon a Hill: The Puritan Myth in Contemporary American Fiction analyzes the work of several of the most important contemporary writers in the United...