Finished The Scarlet Letter -- more to say later when, hopefully, there is something to say, something fresh to say, something that hasn't been said a million times or isn't at this moment being typed up in any number of tern papers. I've always actually preferred The House of the Seven Gables, and I think it might be best to compare the two later. All I can say now about Scarlet is that the book impresses me as a work of structural perfection, both in the shape of the story and the way it uses light and dark, and the way it is so frankly, obviously contrived -- you could get away with that kind of thing then.