An immersive reading of the complete novel.
Read along, word by word.
The Scarlet Letter (1850) follows Hester Prynne in 17th-century Puritan Boston, condemned to wear a scarlet A after bearing a child outside marriage. As her daughter Pearl grows wild and her lover withers under unconfessed guilt, Hester's long-vanished husband returns under another name to begin a slow, patient revenge. Often called the first American psychological novel.
This is an immersive reading edition: human narration synchronized with on-screen text, every word highlighted in time with the narrator’s voice.
Source text (Project Gutenberg) and narration (LibriVox) are in the public domain. This LitReads edition — typography, word-by-word synchronization, composition, and original visual design — © 2026 LitReads. All rights reserved.