A surprisingly dark-humored tale, The Scarlet Letter follows Hester as she is sentenced to wear a red "A" upon her dress until she does for her crime of adultery. A brave and impressive character, Hester refuses to name the man who fathered her child, and spends the next seven years being so good and kind and helpful that the townspeople end up respecting her and referring to the mark as A for Able. It is the men of the novel who are weak: the father of Hester's child is drowning in his own guilt and her cuckolded husband is overcome by the need to exact revenge. Hawthorne has a flair for the dramatic and a penchant for mocking Puritans that makes this an entertaining read once you get past the old fashioned language.