Published in 1850, THE SCARLET LETTER is considered Nathaniel Hawthorne's most famous novel-and the first quintessentially American novel in style, theme, and language. Set in 17th century Puritan Massachusetts, THE SCARLET LETTER centers around the travails of Hester Prynne, who gives birth to an illegitimate child and is quickly introduced to the ugliness, complexity, and ultimately the strength of the human spirit. Though set in Puritan community centuries ago, the moral dilemmas of personal responsibility and consuming emotions of guilt, anger, loyalty and revenge presented in THE SCARLET LETTER are still timeless today.