The Scarlet Letter

"'Thou and thine, Hester Prynne, belong to me.' With these chilling words a husband claims his wife after a two-year absence. But the child she clutches is not his, and Hester must wear a scarlet 'A' upon her breast, the sin of adultery visible to all. Under an assumed name her husband begins his search for her lover, determined to expose what Hester is equally determined to protect. Defiant and proud, Hester witnesses the degradation of two very different men, as moral codes and legal imperatives painfully collide." "Set in the Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, The Scarlet Letter also sheds light on the nineteenth century in which it was written, as Hawthorne explores his ambivalent relations with his Puritan forebears. The text of this edition is taken from the Centenary Edition of Hawthorne's works, the most authoritative critical edition."--BOOK JACKET.

“A perfect work of the American imagination.”-D.H Lawrence “The Scarlet Letter is so terrible in its pictures of diseased human nature as to produce most questionable delights. The reader’s interest never flags for a moment...Hawthorne, when you have studied him, will be very precious to you. He will have plunged you into melancholy, he will have overshadowed you with black forebodings, he will almost have crushed you with imaginary sorrows; but he will have enabled you to feel yourself an inch taller during the process.”-Anthony Trollope Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a razor-sharp novel set in a seventeen-century puritan community. The book examines the contradictions of good and evil, what is apparent and what is hidden, and the power of redemption. After Hester Prynne, the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, has a child out of wedlock, she is branded with the scarlet letter “A” on her dress. Shunned in her community as she refused to identify the father of her child, Hester lives with in a small cottage with her daughter, Pearl. Roger Chillingworth, an elderly physician, joins the community, and unbeknownst to all except for Hester, he is her long-departed husband, who was presumed to be dead. In his absence, Hester had an affair and subsequently gave birth to a child. Covertly aiming for revenge on the father of the child, Chillingworth descends on Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the young minister who he suspects in the illicit affair. Within the remarkable character of Hester, Hawthorne examines female independence and the complexities of sin. With a surprising emotional pitch and powerful insights into the human condition, this is one of America’s greatest novels. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Scarlet Letter is both modern and readable.

Roger Chillingworth, an aging scholar, returns to Puritan Boston and finds a crowd gathered to witness an official punishment. He spots a young woman holding a baby, whom he recognises as his wife, Hester Prynne, standing on the platform. Hester has been found guilty of “the most sinful act”. She refuses to reveal the father of her child and so, is ordered to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ for the rest of her life as a mark of shame.Hester accepts her punishment and struggles to create a new life for her daughter Pearl. For the next seven years, she endures the accusing stares of the society, but holds her head high through the trials and tribulations. Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester’s pastor is the only person,who empathises with her. Meanwhile, Roger Chillingworth is full of vengeance and determined to exact revenge from Hester’s lover.The Scarlet Letter tells the tale of Roger Chillingworth, Hester Prynneand Arthur Dimmesdale as they struggle with their internal conflicts in the morally rigid 17th century society.

These interpretative essays explore different topics and issues in the context of history and culture.

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is an American novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is generally considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery, refuses to name the father, and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores questions of grace, legalism, sin and guilt.

When an elderly English scholar discovers his young wife in the pillory, cradling an illegitimate child and wearing a scarlet A for Adulteress, he disguises himself as a doctor and begins a cruel and destructive search for the father of the child. Set in mid-seventeenth-century Boston, thispowerful tale of passion, puritanism, and revenge is one of the foremost classics of American literature. Covering the most recent developments in Hawthorne scholarship, this up-to-date edition contains full and detailed notes.