The Scarlet Letter (Wordsworth Classics)

Introduction and Notes by Henry Claridge, Senior Lecturer, School of English, University of Kent at Canterbury

This is a troubling story of crime, sin, guilt, punishment, and expiation, set in the rigid moral climate of 17th-century New England. The young mother of an illegitimate child confronts her Puritan judges.

• It is not so much her harsh sentence, but the cruelties of slowly exposed guilt as her lover is revealed, that hold the reader enthralled.
• The story builds all the way to the book's poignant climax, leaving a lasting impression.