In the second instalment of his “
The Scarlet LetterTrilogy” after
A Month of Sundays(1985), John Updike sought in
Roger’s Version(1986 [2006]) to give voice to Roger Chillingworth, the learned and cuckolded husband of the bearer of the scarlet A, Hester Prynne. The Roger of the title is Roger Lambert, an alter ego for Roger Chillingworth, with whom he shares his first name. Roger Lambert is a professor in a city that could well be Boston (in the novel it is identified as an unnamed Northeastern city); moreover, it has been pointed out that Roger’s college could be Harvard Divinity School. To further stress the Puritan resonance of the novel and its particular setting, his son attends Pilgrim School. Touches of Puritanism can be perceived in several other instances in the novel,…
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Citation: Gomez-Galisteo, M. Carmen. "Roger's Version". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 November 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12961, accessed 24 November 2024.]
