THE SCARLET LETTER

I bought this book at a flea market in India. I paid for it 50 rupees, a trifle compared to the value of this superb novel. It is set in the seventeenth century Puritan America.

A woman named Hester, married to a man who was believed lost at sea, gave birth to a child, the offspring of an adulterous liaison.

Hester had committed adultery, and the Puritan America of that time couldn’t tolerate such a sin.

The local authorities made an example of Hester. She was put in the pillory for three hours and forced to wear a scarlet letter A, which meant adulteress, over her breast her whole life.

She refused to reveal the name of her lover. Meanwhile her husband, who was a talented doctor, returned to his town under an assumed name. He was determined to find out who had been the lover of his wife, to take revenge on him.

He discovered that Hester had a love affair with the Puritan priest of the town. He wanted to destroy him psychologically.

At the end, all the characters that seemed to be bad revealed their bright side. The Puritan priest publicly confessed his sin and died in Hester’s arms. Hester’s husband also died and left Pearl, the illegitimate daughter of Ester and the Puritan priest, a big inheritance. She became the richest person in New England.

Why do I like this book? Because it shows how people can change throughout their lives. Nobody is completely good or evil. Everyone has something good inside. Let’s look for their bright side! This way, we will not be disappointed.

Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo