Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649,
The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives
through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of
repentance and dignity. The story begins during the summer of 1642,
near Boston, Massachusetts, in a Puritan village. A young woman,
Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant
daughter in her arms. On the breast of her gown is "a rag of
scarlet The Scarlet Letter cloth" that "assumed the shape of a
letter." It is the uppercase letter "A." The Scarlet Letter "A"
represents the act of adultery that she has committed, and it is to
be a symbol of her sin-a badge of shame-for all to see. The Scarlet
Letter was published as a novel in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor
& Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period as a
writer. When he delivered the final pages to Fields in February
1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully
written" but doubted it would be popular. In fact, the book was an
instant best-seller though, over fourteen years, it brought its
author only $1,500. Its initial publication brought wide protest
from natives of Salem, who did not approve of how Hawthorne had
depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House." A 2,500-copy
second edition of The Scarlet Letter included a preface by
Hawthorne dated March 30, 1850, that stated he had decided to
reprint his introduction "without the change of a word... The only
remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine
good-humor... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or
political, he utterly disclaims such motives." The Scarlet Letter
was one of the first mass-produced books in America. Into the
mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature
typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities.
The first mechanized printing of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes,
sold out within ten days, and was widely read and discussed to an
extent not much experienced in the young country up until that
time.
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