The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

(Paperback, 288 pages, first published in 1850)

Hawthorne's masterpiece—an iconic fable of guilt and redemption set in Puritan Massachusetts—has long been considered one of the greatest American novels.

The story of Hester Prynne—found out in adultery, pilloried by her Puritan community, and abandoned, in different ways, by both her partner in sin and her vengeance-seeking husband—possesses a reality heightened by Hawthorne's pure human sympathy and his unmixed devotion to his supposedly fallen but fundamentally innocent heroine. The Scarlet Letter rightly deserves its stature as the first great novel written by an American, a work of moral force and narrative power that announced an American literature equal to any in the world.

Cautions: This book has been vetted by values-aligned Christian schools that partner with Storyglory, but it has not been fully reviewed by Storyglory staff.

Recommended Age: 15+