The scarlet letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"All the world had frowned on her - for seven long years had it frowned upon this lonely woman - and still she bore it all, nor ever once turned away her firm, sad eyes.

Hester Prynne emerges from prison holding an infant daughter born out of wedlock and finds herself an outcast in a judgmental community ruled by its unbending Puritanism. To mark her infamy she is forced to wear 'the scarlet letter' A - a badge of dishonour for an adulteress who refuses to reveal her lover's identity. Witness to this public shaming is Hester's husband, who two years earlier had sent her ahead to establish a family home, and whom Fate has delayed until now. Swearing his wife to secrecy over their connection, he settles in the community and becomes obsessed with establishing the identity of the man  who cuckolded him. 

Hawthorne's masterpiece deals with the fallout of a perceived sin, the consequences of concealed guilt, the clash between private conscience and public morality in 17th century New England. The tragedy plays out with unstoppable locomotive force in this richly textured "tale of human frailty and sorrow".