Quote of the Week

Everyone has to read The Scarlet Letter in English class, or at least we did when I was in school which was longer ago than I care to admit, but that is not what this is. And be sure that when I do post a quote from The Scarlet Letter I won't be adding a link to the movie version where Demi Moore is topless. This is one of Hawthorne's short stories and if you've never read it go find a copy immediately. There will be a couple of Nathaniel Hawthorne pieces on this list. What can I say? I'm a fan.

 

Mr. Hooper, a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday's garb. There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance. Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil. On a nearer view it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features, except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things. With this gloomy shade before him, good Mr. Hooper walked onward, at a slow and quiet pace, stooping somewhat, and looking on the ground, as is customary with abstracted men, yet nodding kindly to those of his parishioners who still waited on the meeting-house steps. But so wonder-struck were they that his greeting hardly met with a return.

– Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minister’s Black Veil