Audiobook · read by volunteers
Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)
Read by hefyd, librarianite, Ana Simão, Rebecca P., Dianne, George Pilling, Laurie Anne Walden, Christina Boyles, rachelellen, JemmaBlythe · 26 chapters · 9 h 10
About the book
In seventeenth-century Boston, a young woman named Hester Prynne is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and a scarlet letter A on her breast. The Puritan community has judged her, and she must live with its verdict while refusing to reveal the name of the child's father. Nathaniel Hawthorne turns this scene into a powerful study of guilt, shame, hypocrisy and the strength it takes to endure public judgment. Twenty-six sections, including the famous introduction about the Custom-House, run for over nine hours, read by LibriVox volunteers. It is a classic of American literature, dark and beautiful. Its sense of mystery, its moral seriousness and its lyrical prose have kept it in print for generations, and hearing it aloud lets you appreciate the rhythm of Hawthorne's sentences. A classic that rewards a second listening.
Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 to 1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts, a town that haunted his imagination, since one of his ancestors had been a judge in the witch trials. The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, was his first great success and is widely considered one of the founding novels of American literature. It is set in the Puritan Boston of the seventeenth century, but its questions about sin, guilt and judgment are far from historical.
The book begins with a long introductory essay, The Custom-House, in which Hawthorne describes his own years as a customs official and presents the story as a manuscript he discovered. After that, the narrative moves to the Puritan town, where Hester, her daughter and the men connected with their story are caught in a tight web of secrets. The symbols, the letter, the scaffold and the forest, carry the weight of the story, and the language is rich and slow.
This recording keeps the introduction in two parts and follows the novel through twenty-six sections, with a running time of around nine hours. The volunteers of LibriVox read with care for the long sentences. It is a demanding but rewarding book. Anyone who wants to understand how American literature began to explore the inner life of its characters, or who simply likes a gripping story with moral depth, will find it worth the time. The three main figures at the center of the story, together with the child, are vivid enough that many listeners finish the book thinking about them for days. A book to be heard slowly, and perhaps more than once.
Public domain
Nathaniel Hawthorne died in 1864: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text