The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)

Published in 1850 Hawthorne picks up the historical fiction baton and writes about the Puritans who came to America in the 1600s. The story opens with a description of the outside of a prison. Quite an auspicious beginning. It is revealed that a young woman will be passing through the doors into the public gaze …

Translations

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Where to begin? Well, most people would pick up a copy and turn to the first page. Not so simple in the world of Dostoyevsky, Russian literature and translations. What it seems to boil down to is how to capture the very essence of the writing. So, it's not …