Publisher's Synopsis
"Hester Prynne is an adulteress, and the bright red 'A' sewed on to her dress forever separates her from the other sad-colored inhabitants of her New England hometown. But no one else knows who the father of Hester's pixie-like child is--and that sordid mystery eats at the townspeople. Months stretch into years for the uncomplaining and dignified Hester, providing some of her begrudging neighbors with ample opportunity for prying, hypocrisy, contempt, and a whole welter of the darkest of human sins, including an all-consuming desire for revenge. 'The Scarlet Letter is so terrible in its pictures of diseased human nature as to produce most questionable delight. The reader's interest never flags for a moment.'--Anthony Trollope. This Canon Classic is a novel of two intense natures, unflinchingly grim and melancholic yet capable of passionate and unrestrained emotion"--.
