America’s first psychological novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a dark tale of love, crime, and revenge set in colonial New England. It revolves around a single, forbidden act of passion that forever alters the lives of three members of a small Puritan community: Hester Prynne, an ardent and fierce woman who bears the punishment of her sin in humble silence; the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a respected public figure who is inwardly tormented by long-hidden guilt; and the malevolent Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband—a man who seethes with an Ahab-like lust for vengeance.
The landscape of this classic novel is uniquely American, but the themes it explores are universal—the nature of sin, guilt, and penitence, the clash between our private and public selves, and the spiritual and psychological cost of living outside society. Constructed with the elegance of a Greek tragedy, The Scarlet Letter brilliantly illuminates the truth that lies deep within the human heart.
About the Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born into an established New England Puritan family on Independence Day, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. Uninterested in conventional professions such as law, medicine, or the ministry, Nathaniel chose instead to rely "for support upon my pen." Hawthorne's coterie consisted of transcendentalist thinkers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Herman Melville had an early appreciation for the work of Hawthorne, but he did not gain wide public recognition until after his death. Although his Twice-Told Tales (1837) and other works met with little financial success, Hawthorne is credited, along with Edgar Allan Poe, with establishing the American short story.
Novelist and short story writer Nancy Stade (Introduction and Notes) is trained as a lawyer and has worked in the federal government and the private sector. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., where she works for the Federal Drug Administration.
