The Scarlet Letter cover art

The Scarlet Letter

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Scarlet Letter

By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Narrated by: Ian Lynch
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, magnum opus, tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth two years after separation from her husband and is condemned to wear the scarlet letter A on her breast as punishment for her adultery. She resists all attempts of the 17th century Boston clergy to make her reveal the name of her child’s father while she struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.

Public Domain (P)2011 Cherry Hill Publishing
Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Regency Regency Romance Romance

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Scarlet Letter cover art
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass cover art
The Maltese Falcon cover art
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer cover art
Uncle Tom's Cabin cover art
The Portrait of a Lady cover art
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket cover art
Waiting for Godot cover art
Under the Volcano cover art
The Crucible cover art
Beloved cover art
The Old Man and the Sea cover art
Dubliners cover art
The Woman in White cover art
The Sun Also Rises cover art
Ulysses cover art
All stars
Most relevant

What disappointed you about The Scarlet Letter?

This is abridged. It is-lacking the lengthy "Custom-House" introduction written by the author. In the introduction we are told that the author worked in the Boston Custom-House and there discovered a cloth embroidered with the letter "A". Hawthorne DID work in the custom house, but that he discovered the embroidered "A" cloth is fictitious. The introduction must not be removed because it sets up why the following story is told. IF it is removed, customers must be told that it has been removed!

Secondly, the narration by Ian Lynch is TERRIBLE. His intonations for female characters and children are atrocious. They sound fake, shrill and unpleasant. There is too much dialog to ignore these unpleasant interludes. Also, in his reading of the lines the narrator stops and pauses in the wrong places.

This is a very good story. What is says is valid still today and Hawthorne's prose is perceptive and beautiful. I recommend that you choose a different audiobook!

Abridged. Lacks The Custom-House Introduction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.