Book Review: Christian Guides to the Classics, The Scarlet Letter {Crossway}

Christian Guides to the Classics, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter by Leland Ryken
ISBN: 978-1-4335-2608-4
Paperback, 80 pages
Publisher: Crossway
Retail: $5.99
Age/Grade: high school and up

About the study guide (from Crossway):
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.

Read an excerpt (and/or buy the book) here: http://www.crossway.org/books/hawthornes-ithe-scarlet-letteri-tpb/


About the author (from Crossway):
Leland Ryken (PhD, University of Oregon) served as professor of English at Wheaton College for over 43 years. He has authored or edited over three dozen books, including The Word of God in English and The Complete Literary Guide to the Bible. He is a frequent speaker at the Evangelical Theological Society and served as literary stylist for the English Standard Version Bible.

My thoughts:

Simply: small book, good stuff. The original work is over 200 pages, this study guide is under 80 pages. The guides starts with a ‘the book at a glance’, which I found to be helpful since I’d not read the original work. I had some misconceptions that had held me back from reading this particular book. Right away from the study guide, we understand that the book is really about "concealment of sin and the guilt it produces. It is also about consciousness of sin and guilt." The book actually picks after the adulterous act has been committed, so we know but don't have to go through that. 

Each chapter of the book has its own place in the guide, with a plot summary, commentary and for reflection and discussion sections. In the margins are comments from other critics (‘critic’ doesn’t mean ‘all bad’). Another feature is at the beginning titled “The Author and His Faith” that discusses Hawthorne’s own beliefs, those of the time-period as well as the ones portrayed in the book. 

I found this study guide to be helpful for myself and would like to find more of Ryken’s Christian Guides. There are at least three more at this time {Amazon affiliate link}: Homer's The Odyssey, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Shakespeare's MacBeth. Dicken's Great Expectations and Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress are coming Spring 2014. I'm undecided at the moment if I will use this {or Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter at all} in our homeschool but think it's a good resource to have in case we do.

***Disclaimer: I received the above reviewed study guide for free from Crossway for the purpose of this review. All opinions stated are my own. No compensation was given. This post does include affiliate links. See Disclosure/Policies.***