We are always a bit tardy in getting started in the New Year so here is our first book discussion book for 2012 – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

From the Back Cover

Set in the Puritanical society of Boston in the middle years of the seventeenth century, ‘The Scarlet Letter’ is the story of Hester Prynne, a married woman who has an affair and gives birth to a daughter. Condemned by society for her adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet A (for Adulteress) on her dress for the rest of her life. Hester refuses to name her lover; but when her estranged husband appears unexpectedly, after having been captive by Indians, he determines to discover the man’s identity. Hester bears her shame with dignity, and attitudes towards her soften as time passes; but her lover is steadily consumed by his guilt, and her husband is destroyed by his determination to discover the lover’s identity.

Originally published in 1850, ‘The Scarlet Letter’ is a powerful study of bigotry, persecution, obsession and hypocrisy.

 

Please join us to read and discuss this classic tale, discussion starting very soon.