This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition™ includes a
glossary and reader’s notes to help the modern reader contend
with Hawthorne’s complex approach to the human condition.
Arguably Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous novel, The Scarlet
Letter probes the very root of the age-old question, "What is
good?" Can there be redemption in a society where the only good
is the avoidance of sin? Through the characters of the beautiful
and independent Hester Prynne, the pious yet guilt-ridden
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and the vengeance-obsessed Roger
Chillingworth, Hawthorne explores the range of human response to
sin and the deadly consequences of the inability to forgive
oneself and others. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne peers into
the shadows of the soul to reveal the doubt, fear, and guilt
that, try as we might to deny them, form the foundations of our
existence.