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Cover of The Scarlet Letter from Open Library

Public-domain book

The Scarlet Letter

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

1850 · Novel · Gothic

Open Library OL455305W

Hester Prynne wears a letter the town requires, while the father of her child stays unnamed. Hawthorne’s novel is about punishment as a public art.

About the author

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter sets a public punishment in a Puritan town and then studies the private lives around it. Guilt, in this novel, is as much a community habit as a feeling. More of this shelf for Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Where to read it

Open Library hosts the reading view. Some editions open in the browser; others ask you to borrow. Project Gutenberg links in this catalog open the book’s page, not a file kept here.

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