My son was forced to read this book for his high school english class. I consider this cruel and unusual punishment. I believe there are some consitutional laws that prevent schools from giving kids this big slop of boring inside about 300 pages. Its the reason why kids these days hate reading, because before they have time to read anything exciting and interesting they have to read stuff like the Scarlet Letter. The only reason Nathaniel Hawthorne is a classic is because he wrote fancy and he is dead. In fact Hawthorne never wrote an interesting word in his life. Its like he went out of his way to bore people to death. Now I know there wasn't much around to inspire good stories back than but I didn't think it was this bad. He drags on a plot that shouldn't of lasted more than 30 pages into a whole freakin novel! Pure insanity that kids are forced to read terrible bore fests like Hawthorne.

I pity the fool who has to read this book for school. It truly is a horrible book. Even my teacher, who is passionate about nearly everything he teaches, admits that he hates the book.

I think this is one of my favorites from high school English or whenever I read the thing, and I agree that it is a classic full of excellent imagery, strong characters, and of course all that symbolism we all love to hate.

But outside the annoying intellectual stuff, this is just a great story that fills that spot craving good drama. Call it a soap-opera problem--only this keeps the craziness in check and lets the characters, all of them, guide their own stories.

The stories revolves around a few central people in a small Puritan town. And you know those Puritans. Hester is the town outcast, socially punished for having an affair whilst she was married. Along side her are her daughter, her husband, and the man she really loved all along.

These people are real, as much as you like or despise them. The story is real, and even though we haven't all been accused by a town of Puritans for adultry we can all testify to that same judgement and goodness that remains in this world.

This is required reading for my 16 yr old son...book arrived quickly & in great shape! Very Pleased!

Why do books such as this keep being required reading in high schools? Havent there been any authors in more recent time that would provide students more relevancy? Obviously this appeals to those who are truly literature lovers--and that's fantastic. But for most kids, give them something they'll enjoy reading and maybe they'll learn to love literature more. Books like this just antagonize and demoralize those who are not naturally literature lovers.