The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Cover: The Scarlet Letter (1861) by Hugues Merle (1823-1881) · Wikimedia Commons (painting in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 37.172) · Public domain
The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then struggles to lead a new life of repentance and dignity. As punishment, she must wear a scarlet letter 'A' (for "adultery"). Containing a number of religious and historic allusions, the book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
Summary source: Wikipedia: The Scarlet Letter · CC BY-SA 4.0
Table of contents
- 1: The Market-Place
- 2: The Recognition
- 3: The Interview
- 4: Hester at Her Needle
- 5: Pearl
- 6: The Governor’s Hall
- 7: The Elf-Child and the Minister
- 8: The Leech
- 9: The Leech and His Patient
- 10: The Interior of a Heart
- 11: The Minister’s Vigil
- 12: Another View of Hester
- 13: Hester and the Physician
- 14: Hester and Pearl
- 15: A Forest Walk
- 16: The Pastor and His Parishioner
- 17: A Flood of Sunshine
- 18: The Child at the Brookside
- 19: The Minister in a Maze
- 20: The New England Holiday
- 21: The Procession
- 22: The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter
- 23: Conclusion