Wednesday 18 February 2015

Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter

Presenting Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stacy King, Crystal Chan, SunNeko Lee.

Here is the summary of the book:

A powerful tale of forbidden love, shame, and revenge comes to life in Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter. Faithfully adapted by Crystal Chan from the original novel, this new edition features stunning artwork by SunNeko Lee (Manga Classics: Les Miserables) which will give old and new readers alike a fresh insight into the Nathaniel Hawthorne's tragic saga of Puritan America.

Manga Classics editions feature classic stories, faithfully adapted and illustrated in manga style, and available in both hardcover and softcover editions.

Proudly presented by UDON Entertainment and Morpheus Publishing.


After 'Les Miz' and 'Pride & Prejudice', the 'Manga Classics' line serves us yet another illustrious classic, Nathaniel Hawthrone's The Scarlet Letter. It is always a pleasure rediscovering old classics in a variety of formats. Although here it would be discovering the tale .... I haven't read the source material yet, so I can't compare after my opinion of only this manga version.

Reads just like every other manga out there. Back-to-front. Right-to-left. Anticlockwise. As the goodreads synopsis says stunning artwork by SunNeko Lee (Les Miz). The Scarlet Letter showcases this epic tragedy of the 15th Century Puritan America, of a forbidden romance, shame and bitter revenge. Where the 'Les Miz' manga fails to illustrate the desperate French era (liked the manga version of Pride & Prejudice though), 'The Scarlet Letter' produces stark details to Hawthorne's classic of literal breakdown of religion in a society based by such due to the greatest sin a woman of that era could commit 'adultery', extra marital affairs/relations of Hester Prynne.

Of course the religion in question is Christianity but since I do not belong to that ethnicity so I can't really elaborate on their edicts. But its not just Christianity but others too and its been happening since the dawn of time to this contemporary era too. The hypocrisy of religion. Hester Prynne is condemned and humiliated in the name of God and forced to wear the letter 'A' as punishment.

Of course, the despoiler is never named until the end and her own husband never publically accepts her for mysterious reasons. But what stood out most was Hester's struggle bearing the letter with an uncommon confidence, raising her daughter Pearl helping and aiding where needed .... little-by-little by vigor, she is able to change the perception of her badge of shame to the 'A' for an 'Angel'. It shows that those same people who condemned her then start to start to see her worth. Of course, a few things are unclear but there is no question to be asked, this is a gorgeous adaptation.

"A gorgeous adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter"

Genre :      Graphic Novel, Manga, Classic

PublisherUdon Entertainment

Release Date: 10th March, 2015

My Copy: publisher and netgalley

Rate:              4/5 (Really Liked It)

Books in the series (review links):
               Manga Classics: Les Misérables
                     Manga Classics: Pride & Prejudice

Buy:           Amazon

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