The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850.
Set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne who conceives a daughter through an affair and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. The book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
The Scarlet Letter was one of the first mass-produced books in America. It was popular when first published and is considered a classic work today. It inspired numerous film, television, and stage adaptations. Critics have described it as a masterwork and novelist D. H. Lawrence called it a "perfect work of the American imagination". Source: Wikipedia

American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804, to May 19, 1864) wrote both novels and short stories. His works typically touch on history, religion, and morality. His family had a lengthy history in Salem, Massachusetts, where he was born in 1804. Hawthorne enrolled at Bowdoin College in 1821, was chosen for membership in Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and received his diploma in 1825. Fanshawe, his debut novel, was published in 1828; he later tried to suppress it because he believed it fell short of the caliber of his later works. In magazines, he produced a number of short stories, which he later compiled as Twice-Told Tales in 1837. He proposed to Sophia Peabody the next year. Before getting married to Peabody in 1842, he joined the transcendentalist community of Brook Farm and worked at the Boston Custom House. The pair first settled in Concord, Massachusetts' The Old Manse before relocating to Salem, the Berkshires, and finally The Wayside. Following the release of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, a number of other novels followed. Prior to their 1860 return to Concord, Hawthorne and his family traveled to Europe as part of a political appointment as a consul. He passed away on May 19, 1864.