Set within the richly imagined confines of Puritan Boston,  The Scarlet Letter  is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic tale of the social consequences of adultery and the subversive force of personal desire in a strict religious community. The transgression of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, the innate lawlessness of their illegitimate child, Pearl, and the torturous jealousy of the husband Roger Chillingworth trigger a provocative drama of sin and suffering, repentance and revenge.  “Beautiful, admirable, extraordinary… it has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art.”  —Henry James