Scarlet Letter

Hailed by Henry James as the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country Nathaniel Hawthorne's <b>The Scarlet Letter</b> reaches to our nation's historical and moral roots for the material of great tragedy. Set in an early New England colony the novel shows the terrible impact a single passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed vengeful Chillingworth. <p/>With <b>The Scarlet Letter</b> Hawthorne became the first American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic a masterful exploration of humanity's unending struggle with sin guilt and pride.