Wordsworth Classics are inexpensive editions designed to appeal to the general reader and students. We commissioned teachers and specialists to write wide ranging, jargon-free introductions and to provide notes that would assist the understanding of our readers rather than interpret the stories for them. In the same spirit, because the pleasures of reading are inseparable from the surprises, secrets and revelations that all narratives contain, we strongly advise you to enjoy this book before turning to the Introduction.

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.

However, 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 all the way to the book's poignant climax.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTORY  The Custom-House

The Prison-Door

The Market-Place

The Recognition

The Interview

Hester at Her Needle

Pearl

The Governor's Hall

The Elf-Child and the Minister

The Leech

The Leech and His "Patient

The Interior of a Heart

The Minister's Vigil

Another View of Hester

Hester and the Physician

Hester and Pearl

A Forest Walk

The Pastor and His Parishioner

A Flood of Sunshine

The Child at the Brook-Side

The Minister in a Maze

The New England Holiday

The Procession

The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter

Conclusion

NOTES