The guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel brings together passages and questions for close reading, and resources to support discussion, writing, and further exploration of the novel's historical context.

Reader's Guide to The Scarlet Letter includes:

• Interpretive discussion questions for each chapter, as well as for the novel as a whole.
• Passages and questions for close reading—rich excerpts from the novel accompanied by questions that guide readers through a literary analysis of each passage
• A variety of background and context documents about Puritan New England and the Salem witchcraft trials, along with notes concerning the orgins of the novel, give student readers a clearer understanding of Hawthorne's inspiration.
• Reviews and essays about how The Scarlet Letter has been received since it was first published are also included.
• Complete text of two of Hawthorne's short stories, "The Minister's Black Veil," and "Ethan Brand," with discussion questions for each. These stories were chosen for their thematic connections to The Scarlet Letter.
• A biography of Hawthorne and a glossary of literary terms.
• Background and Context Documents:

  The Puritans

  The Diary of Michael Wigglesworth
  Michael Wigglesworth

  Christ's Fidelity
  Deodat Lawson

  The Wonders of the Invisible World
  Cotton Mather

  The Annals of Salem: Laws Governing Adultery
  Joseph B. Felt

  Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
  Jonathan Edwards

  Nathaniel Hawthorne's Notebooks

  The American Notebooks
  The English Notebooks

  Reviews and Reactions

  Morbid Hearts
  Edwin Percy Whipple

  A Sympathy for Their Sin
  Arthur Cleveland Coxe

  Nathaniel Hawthorne
  Henry James

  The Devil in Massachusetts
  Marion L. Starkey

  Mystery and Manners
  Flannery O'Connor

The text of the novel is not included.