The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's all-time classic of historical fiction, The Scarlet Letter is published here complete.

Published in 1850, this historical fiction examines life in colonial New England in the late 17th century. At the time, the Puritan faith held sway over the population and conducted its reign by legislating supreme morality - as such, adultery is held as a crime. The novel introduces Hester Prynne, a young woman who is accused and found guilty of adultery - she is made to wear a black scarf embroidered with a large, red letter 'A' as a shaming punishment.

During the proclamation of her public shaming, Hester Prynne's husband - long disappeared and assumed dead - witnesses her shame and vows to find the man who slept with his wife. At the same time Hester's child, an infant girl named Pearl, is growing through infancy - naturally spirited and unruly, the threat of members of the church to separate Pearl from her mother grows. Meanwhile, Hester's continuing refusal to reveal her child's father exacerbates tensions further.

A compelling and dramatic novel, The Scarlet Letter has been compared with Adam and Eve in that the protagonist finds herself outcast after committing a sin. The noted correspondence of character's appearance with the emotions in their innermost soul is likewise a noted theme, in keeping with the author's admiration of Edgar Allan Poe who employed a similar storytelling device.