"The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss."

Hester Prynne has given birth to a child out of wedlock. Humiliated, jailed, and forced to wear a scarlet A (for adultress) on her dress, Hester settles with her daughter Pearl at the edge of the town and tries to live a quiet life. The unexpected return of her husband, thought lost at sea, reveals the secrets of Hester's affair and brings private shame into the public eye.

One of the first mass-produced books in America, Nathaniel Hawthorne's masterwork is a tragic portrayal of sin, guilt, and pride. A powerful story of determining your own identity in spite of a restrictive society, The Scarlet Letter has served as an inspiration for numerous plays, operas, TV shows and films.

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