Four Classic American Novels: The Scarlet Letter Adventures Huckleberry Finn The Red Badge Courage Billy Budd (Signet Classics) [Paperback]

Nathaniel Hawthorne (Author), Mark Twain (Author), Stephen Crane (Author), Herman Melville (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sweeping readers from the New England colonies to the banks of the Mississipppi, to the battle fields of the Civil War to the storm tossed waters of the Atlantic, this extraordinary collection is ideal-and most economical-for classrooms, libraries, and homes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics (January 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451527771
• ISBN-13: 978-0451527776
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #476,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Four American masterpieces- what connects them?, January 23, 2005

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Four Classic American Novels: The Scarlet Letter Adventures Huckleberry Finn The Red Badge Courage Billy Budd (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

What connects these four American masterpieces? Melville and Hawthorne were friends, and in a sense helped inspire each other. Wouldn't it then have made more sense to put together their two greatest masterpieces, ' The Scarlett Letter' and ' Moby Dick' Or is it only a matter of size and convenience that Melville's last work, and one of his great ones 'Billy Budd'is chosen for this volume? And why link with them Crane and Twain? True their best books are chosen and so of these four great American masters we have the best books of three. And only one's greatest masterpiece, and arguably the greatest prose masterpiece in American literature is left out.
Yet how complain about the abundance of riches this volume offers? Each one of the four works here is a small world in itself.
Hester Prynne ( A Scarlet Letter) Huck, Henry Fleming , and Billy Budd each is put through a kind of moral test. Two have more or less tragic ends (Hester and Billy Budd) and two have redemptive moral journeys which enable them to continue on their journeys of life, wiser and morally strengthened.
This is great literature, the best America has to give. And the four taken together are if this is what the reader seeks, a bargain.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent -- A Must Read., March 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Four Classic American Novels: The Scarlet Letter; Huckleberry Finn; The Red Badge of Courage; Billy Budd (Signet classics) (Paperback)

The Scarlet Letter is super. It is well written and tells a touching tale of Puritan hypocrisy. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece of American Literature. The Red Badge of Courage is Fine, and Billy Budd is the story of an innocent sailor prosecuted for a false charge of mutany.