The Scarlet Letter Audiobook By Nathaniel Hawthorne cover art

The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter

By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Narrated by: Flo Gibson
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About this listen

This powerful story of passion, adultery, honor, and repression caused a tremendous controversy in 1850 when it was published, because of its provocative subject matter. Set in Puritan New England, the novel begins with Hester Prynne, a young woman with an illegitimate baby daughter, leaving prison to face her scornful townsfolk. Forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" to remind people of her adultery, Hester obstinately holds her head high and refuses to reveal the father of her child. In the process she cuts herself off from society - and her lover. Why won't Hester reveal her secret? The answer has much to do with guilt, passion, and repentance - timeless themes within a splendid story that has remained a literary classic for over a century.

Public Domain (P)2003 Recorded Books
Classics Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Regency Regency Romance Romance
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Editorial reviews

Flo Gibson, the grande dame of audiobook performance, lends her renowned voice to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s masterful treatise on sin, knowledge, and consequence. Gibson, known for her fluid diction and deep, soothing timbre, is regarded by many as the most versatile voice in audiobook history. Here Gibson whisks listeners away to a 17th-century New England Puritan village. Gibson plays Hester Prynne - the ignoble adulteress shunned by her community - and her secret lover, the sickly Reverend Dimmesdale, besot by guilt from his carnal transgression. Prynne is forsaken by her former husband, a jealous doctor, and left alone to raise her mischievous child, the impish Pearl. As Prynne and Dimmesdale reckon with knowledge of their sin, the puritanical villagers’ rigid morality is called into question.

Critic reviews

"A masterpiece." (Henry James)

What listeners say about The Scarlet Letter

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Still resonates!

Even after a span of 160 years this story by Mr. Hawthorne still captures the essence of human nature with a humor and whit not often displayed in these much later days.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Infuriating

I wanted to listen to the recording as I read the book, however it was difficult to follow along as the “chapters” listed in the recording do not follow the chapters in the book. For example: to listen to chapter 3 in the book, you have to go to the middle of the recording to chapter 10 to follow along. Get it together audible, it’s not that hard. Also, the narrator does not have the voice to narrate. Very flat and boring. Luckily this version is free.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointed....

Sadly, I found that this book was ruined by the reader. The voice seemed old, crone like, rough and manly although the reader is a woman.

Although the sensibilities of both the time of the story and the time of it's writing are both some what foreign to most of us today, still the character of Hester was more cowed than would render her a heroine. Also the portrayal of the little daughter as a wicked sprite was less than generous.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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The reading of the Scarlet Letter

The story was read thoroughly. The change in the readers voice to signify the different characters was a bit of a distraction.

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Chapters

The book was narrated very well but the chapters were a bit off and hard to follow.

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I loved this book!

I loved the line that talks about “repudiating the phantom of human merit.” So true, and the themes in this book really resonated with me. The recording was pretty good too!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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doesn't match

The recording is good, but the chapters don't match up to the chapters of the book.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Loved story

However since the original story was written in 1850 it was difficult to understand at times.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

If you manage to get through the intro...

The first 8 chapters are the author’s (narrators?) musings on his time working in a counting house and how the scarlet letter itself was found. The story is a good one but that intro could have been cut to 5 minutes imo and been just as effective.

There are some odd blank spaces in the recording as if the engineer spliced in too much space or spliced poorly. Makes you wonder if the book has stopped.

An age old tale that we still see repeated in our modern era...

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Classic Yet Tedious

This story is certainly an American Classic, but I can understand why many highschoolers find this reading to be difficult; the story is easy to understand, but the writing can be hard to read & stay focus.

This audio was well, but the thing that was a little off putting was how the chapters were taken apart. Sometimes the chapters would not be full chapters or a new chapter would start up in the audio chapter. Either than that, the story was alright.

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