The golden touch: told to the children

Hawthorne's most famous work of fiction, "The Scarlet Letter," is a bright and edifying story about how a simple act of kindness has the power to change everything. It is the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a child out of wedlock with her lover - a clergyman - and bears it in shame on her breast. She has been branded on the bosom with a red letter 'A,' the symbol of adultery. Hawthorne presents a panorama of seventeenth-century New England society - the Puritans struggling with their principles and impulses, the sinners ruthlessly punished - and provides a mirror for our own image. The story is ought to be read by every child.