America in the 17th century: A woman, guilty of adultery, stands at the stocks and refuses to reveal who the father of her daughter is. The stern Puritan authorities condemn her to wear a scarlet letter for life as a mark of her shame. Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts the consequences of these exaggerated moral standards and the mechanisms of social exclusion with psychological finesse. His novel is one of the most important American classics of the 19th century, a time when modern America redefined itself by looking back at its history. With his crystal-clear new translation, Jürgen Brôcan gives the novel a form for today's readers; in the appendix, he explains the historical and literary backgrounds.