The Scarlet Letter(红字)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
INTRODUCTORY TO "THE SCARLET LETTER"
It is a little remarkable, that—though disinclined to talk
overmuch of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my
personal friends—an autobiographical impulse should twice in my
life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public. The
first time was three or four years since, when I favoured the
reader—inexcusably, and for no earthly reason that either the
indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imagine—with a
description of my way of life in the deep quietude of an Old Manse.
And now—because, beyond my deserts, I was happy enough to find a
listener or two on the former occasion—I again seize the public by
the button, and talk of my three years' experience in a
Custom-House. The example of the famous "P. P. , Clerk of this
Parish," …