The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Set in a historical setting, in Puritan New England the novel examines guilt, sin and evil as inherent human traits. Considered one of the greatest works written by the leading author of 19th-century romanticism in American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne.