The Inspiration of a Classic

When I was in high school, almost every eleventh grade student read Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, "The Scarlet Letter".  My teacher, however, was a young women who was too embarrassed to teach a story which dealt with adultery and a child born out of wedlock in 17th century Puritan Massachusetts.  Instead, we read Hawthorne's other famous novel, "The House of the Seven Gables".

I never did read "The Scarlet Letter", but I recently finished a novel which gives a fictional account of how Hawthorne was inspired to create the protagonist of "The Scarlet Letter", the adulteress, Hester Prynne.  

"Hester", written by Laurie Lico Albanese is set in 19th century Massachusetts. It tells the story of Isobel Gamble, a young Scottish seamstress who comes to America with her much older husband, a pharmacist who is a drunkard and opium addict. They settle in Salem, but her husband soon takes off on a departing ship, accepting a job as a medic.  Isobel is left alone, struggling to support herself through her extraordinary talent for embroidery.  She meets the young, handsome, aspiring writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne.  The two are drawn to each other and begin a secretive affair.

Lico Albanese did meticulous historical research to recreate life in the Salem of that era.  She offers a fictitious but believable explanation of how Hawthorne was inspired to write his most famous work.