Enjoyed this recap muchly! I have an annotated copy of the book, but this commentary's actually opening the story (and particularly the introductory sections) better for me.
For all the giggling my friends and I did in school about the title, those Hawthorne commentaries led me to look up the etymology for the slang term "dick." Apparently it didn't become a euphemism for "penis" until the 1880s, a few decades after this was published. But "dick" *was* a term in the 17th century for a male sexual partner, so maybe we weren't so wrong to giggle.
Enjoyed this recap muchly! I have an annotated copy of the book, but this commentary's actually opening the story (and particularly the introductory sections) better for me.
For all the giggling my friends and I did in school about the title, those Hawthorne commentaries led me to look up the etymology for the slang term "dick." Apparently it didn't become a euphemism for "penis" until the 1880s, a few decades after this was published. But "dick" *was* a term in the 17th century for a male sexual partner, so maybe we weren't so wrong to giggle.
Why thank you, Kip Livetweet!
And hell yeah to be immature in high school. Sometimes you're really onto something, lol.