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The Scarlet Letter
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
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Publisher's summary
Considered his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne's story of Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl, conceived through an adulterous affair with a Puritan pastor in 17th century Boston. From start to finish, the book explores the themes of law, guilt, and sin. Since its appearance in 1850, this magnificent book has been a perennial favorite among young and old, though it was extremely controversial when it was first published.
Henry James described the novel thusly: "It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things - an indefinable purity and lightness of conception. One can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art."
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Wow!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-11-03
By: Joseph Conrad
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Phantastes
- By: George MacDonald
- Narrated by: Brad Powers
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A young man named Anodos experiences dream like adventures in Fairy Land, where he meets tree spirits, endures the presence of the overwhelming shadow, journeys to the palace of the fairy queen, and searches for the spirit of the earth. The story conveys a profound sadness and a poignant longing for death.
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THIS IS LIBRIVOX'S FREE RECORDING
- By C. M. W. on 12-24-18
By: George MacDonald
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A Christmas Carol
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Benjamin May
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and his adventures on Christmas Eve continue to teach an important lesson, even to this day. Author Charles Dickens introduces us to the main character by painting him in a negative light, a selfish and miserly old man who will barely pay enough money to keep his office heated. When Scrooge returns home after work, the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, visits him and tells him that because of the wrongdoing he had done during his life, he has been condemned to walk in his ghost years shackled....
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A Fine audio Interpretation
- By Lee Gregory Stewart on 02-03-23
By: Charles Dickens
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Doug Bradley's Spinechillers Audio Books, Volume 1
- Classic Horror Stories
- By: Charles Dickens, H. P. Lovecraft, Saki, and others
- Narrated by: Doug Bradley
- Length: 2 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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This volume features William F Harvey's original undead hand story "The Beast with Five Fingers" that sparked many movies including Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead". Poe's classic "The Tell Tale Heart" is joined by Lovecraft's creepy tale of alienation "The Outsider", and a chilling Dickens ghost story "The Signalman".
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Excellent stories and wonderful performance
- By Gavin Lees on 10-12-18
By: Charles Dickens, and others
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Colin Farrell
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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This quintessential coming-of-age novel describes the early life of Stephen Dedalus. It is set in Ireland during the 19th century, which was a time of emerging Irish nationalism and conservative Catholicism. Highly autobiographical in nature, the work is also notable for its being the first one in which Joyce uses innovative “stream of consciousness” writing style. A Portrait... follows Stephen Dedalus from his babyhood into early adulthood.
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Bitterly disappointed
- By James on 01-29-19
By: James Joyce
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Les Miserables
- By: Victor Hugo
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 57 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the Parisian underworld and plotted like a detective story, Les Miserables follows Jean Valjean, originally an honest peasant, who has been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving family. A hardened criminal upon his release, he eventually reforms, becoming a successful industrialist and town mayor. Despite this, he is haunted by an impulsive former crime and is pursued relentlessly by the police inspector Javert.
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one happy insomniac
- By Kathryn on 01-27-05
By: Victor Hugo
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The Masque of the Red Death
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: David Ian Davies
- Length: 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Prince Prospero invites several dozen of the local nobility to his castle for protection against an oncoming plague, the Red Death. Prospero orders his guests to attend a masked ball and, amidst a general atmosphere of debauchery and depravity, notices the entry of a mysterious hooded stranger dressed all in red.
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mediocre
- By Krystal on 10-20-17
By: Edgar Allan Poe
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Ben-Hur
- A Tale of the Christ
- By: Lew Wallace
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 23 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A classic of faith, fortitude, and inspiration, this faithful New Testament tale combines the events of the life of Jesus with grand historical spectacle in the exciting story of Judah of the House of Hur, a man who finds extraordinary redemption for himself and his family. Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the first century. His old friend, Messala, arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions.
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Not Like the Movie
- By Paul Z. on 01-31-12
By: Lew Wallace
What listeners say about The Scarlet Letter
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Lisa
- 11-14-18
Off-putting female voices
This is a novel that is probably better read than listened to. It involves a lot of description and commentary, and I think its depth is lost if you are easily distracted while listening. Overall, I was interested enough to finish it, but the narrator's female voices drove me crazy. He was good with the male voices - they sounded like normal, intelligent human beings - but his female characters sounded like a parody, almost as though he were mocking them. That took some weight away from the central issue of the novel: Hester's having to wear the scarlet letter and her reaction to it.
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- Alison
- 08-16-14
Great story, but do not love the narrator
I wish I'd heard this story with a different author. While he lends sufficient gravitas to the narration, the high-level vocabulary, and the historical nature of the story, to say nothing of the male characters, his treatment and voicing of the female characters - strong, vibrant women with complex personalities, make them sound like Tinkerbell. The falsetto he uses makes me think not of a woman, but of some animated caricature, and I feel that it does the entire storyline a grave disservice.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Emily
- 08-23-15
Beautifully written.
The story was absolutely wonderful. Sometimes hard to understand and stay along with the plot, but Charlton was mesmerizing. Would recommend for ages 16 and older.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Sherri F.
- 01-17-15
Decent
Dimsdale's struggle and inner Igbo are pithy, and the chilling Dr. Chilling worth brings a spectrish malevolence very fitting for an antagonist. The whole dreary New England setting is somewhat depressing, and Hawthorne's subtle mocking of colonial English superstition and belief in the supernatural make this not without merit, but not for the reader looking for a lift in the spirits.
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1 person found this helpful
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- TomC
- 04-07-15
Masterpiece! Brilliantly read!
I was blown away by the lofty language and the sheer brilliance of the author. I was also truly grateful and impressed by the talent of the narrator, that made the lofty language both authentic and easy to understand.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David Hopkins
- 11-01-15
Awesome!
A masterpiece both in word and performance. Hawthorne weaves the tale while Griffin makes it come alive.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michelle
- 11-19-15
High school student
This was an awful experience and I hope that someday English teachers will stop forcing students to suffer through such things as this.
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- Publicagent
- 12-22-15
No Introduction??? It's a part of the novel!
Sometimes Audible really drops the ball. My guess is that someone who doesn't know anything about the Scarlet Letter presumes that the introduction is nonfiction and therefore extraneous. It is not. It is part of the novel. As I started listening to this, I was wondering if I had the wrong book until I realized that the introduction has been cut in its entirety. It's also quite a substantial introduction. It ends on page 65 of the book that I have in the house. It places everything in context and it's a big reason why this book was so successful. What are we expected to do? Scavenge through all of the copies to figure out which ones have the introduction? If they always read the entire texts, there would be no issues. Cutting corners is happening too frequently. Please, don't.
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4 people found this helpful