The Scarlet Letter: A Romance

Book Code: 1111013675714

Nathaniel Hawthorne

ABOUT THE BOOK

This novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of and dignity. Set in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, during the years 1642 to 1649, it explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. It revolves around shaming and social stigmatizing, both Hester's public humiliation and Dimmesdale's private shame and fear of exposure. Notably, their liaison is never spoken of, so the circumstances that lead to Hester's pregnancy, and how their affair was kept secret never become part of the plot.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. Much of his writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral metaphors with an anti-Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic Movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His important novels include Fanshawe, The New Adam and Eve, The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni.

CONTENTS

Preface .................................................................................................................. 7

Introductory. The custom-house .............................................................. 9

1. The prison door ........................................................................... 37

2. The market-place ....................................................................... 39

3. The recognition .......................................................................... 46

4. The interview ............................................................................... 53

5. Hester at her needle ................................................................ 58

6. Pearl ................................................................................................. 65

7. The governor’s hall ................................................................ 72

8. The elf-child and the minister ........................................... 77

9. The leech ........................................................................................ 84

10. The leech and his patient ....................................................... 91

11. The interior of a heart ........................................................... 98

12. The minister’s vigil ................................................................. 103

13. Another view of hester........................................................ 111

14. Hester and the physician ..................................................... 117

15. Hester and pearl ...................................................................... 122

16. A forest walk ............................................................................. 127

17. The pastor and his parishioner ......................................... 132

18. A flood of sunshine ................................................................ 139

19. The child at the brookside ................................................. 144

20. The minister in a maze ........................................................... 150

21. The new england holiday ................................................... 158

22. The procession ........................................................................... 165

23. The revelation of the scarlet letter ......................... 173

24. Conclusion .................................................................................. 180