Behind the Scarlet Letter: Based on a True Story

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

Behind the Scarlet Letter: Based on a True Story

A fallen minister, a young woman, and the most sensational legal trial of the turn-of-the-19th century.

Behind the Scarlet Letter explores the true19th-century romantic scandal involving the Reverend Ammi Rogers, Asenath Caroline Smith—a fatherless teenager from Connecticut—and a local doctor, culminating in the most sensational legal trial of the century. Clouded by rumors and politics, Smith's secret love affair with these men not only influenced a literary classic, but still influences American politics today.

Readers will be riveted by the story of the real-life Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale.

Fans of Nathaniel Hawthorne will recognize familiar figures—a young seamstress, a minister, and a doctor—and be captivated by the tragic consequences of their choices.

The novel opens with Hawthorne struggling to sleep, letting the truth behind The Scarlet Letter surface, as he reviews the legal case that helped inspire one of America's most enduring literary works.