GajimaruClassics.
The Scarlet LetterOn the coverAutumn Landscape, New England, Albert Bierstadt, c. 1880
The Scarlet Letter
In Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne bears a child out of wedlock and must wear a scarlet “A,” while the father hides and her wronged husband plots. A dark romance of sin, guilt, and public shame.
Character notes and context for the chapter you’ve read.
A taut, blazing story about public shaming and private guilt that feels eerily current. Hester Prynne is one of literature’s first truly modern heroines.
SettingPuritan Boston, 1640s
A Puritan colony where church and state were one, sin was a public matter, and a community could brand a person’s body and soul for a single transgression.
On screen & beyond
- Roland Joffé’s film (1995)