Publisher's Synopsis
The Scarlet Letter is set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
The Scarlet Letter is a work of fiction in a historical setting, and is considered to be Hawthorne's best work. Hawthorne describes a space between materialism and "dreaminess" that he calls "a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbues itself with nature of the other." This combination of "dreaminess" and realism gave Hawthorne space to explore major themes.
