by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)

Hawthorne’s transcendentalist novel explores the notions of justice and revenge rooted in America’s theocratic past. He contrasts the honor of a fallen woman, Hester Prynne, with the sadistic manipulations of her cuckold husband, who exacts his own rough justice that proves far more demeaning than the emblem of adultery she is forced to wear.

Note: Hawthorne, a close friend of President Franklin Pierce’s, descended from a New England family that participated in the Salem witch trials.