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The Scarlet Letter
  • | 1 | On the Scaffold

  • Narrator

    It was a summer morning in the year 1642.

    Profile Picture of Narrator in The Scarlet Letter
  • In the small town of Boston, an angry crowd was gathering in front of a wooden building.

  • Its oak door was studded with iron spikes.

  • The building was a prison.

  • The people in the crowd were Puritans, people who followed a strict religious code.

  • The men had beards and wore dark clothes and tall gray hats.

  • The women wore white capsor cloaks with hoods.

  • Narrator

    Everyone’s eyes were glued to the door.

    Profile Picture of Narrator in The Scarlet Letter
  • They were waiting to see the prisoner, Hester Prynne.

  • One woman in the crowd said,

  • Profile Picture of Crowd in The Scarlet Letter

    Crowd

    “The Reverend Dimmesdale is very upsetthat such a scandal has come upon his church.”

  • Profile Picture of Crowd in The Scarlet Letter

    Crowd

    “The judges have shown too much mercy,”

  • Narrator

    said another woman.

    Profile Picture of Narrator in The Scarlet Letter
  • Profile Picture of Crowd in The Scarlet Letter

    Crowd

    “We women would not have been so easy.

  • At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on her forehead.

  • As it is, he can easily cover up the mark.

  • And then she can walk the streets as brave as ever.”

  • Narrator

    Yet another woman added in an angry voice,

    Profile Picture of Narrator in The Scarlet Letter
  • Profile Picture of Crowd in The Scarlet Letter

    Crowd

    “Why do we talk of marks and brands?

Welcome to Literal!

Books on Literal are a little different, they look like a group chat. Characters have profile pictures and each sentence becomes a chat bubble.

Narrator
Speaking Character

Reading

There are 4 different ways to experience reading: Auto Play, Audio Support, Tap To Read, and Free Scroll.

Tap “Next” to learn more.

Auto Play

Auto Play is the default reading mode. With Auto Play, text message bubbles load automatically.

You can play, pause, or skip forward at any time.

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Audio Reader

Turning on Audio Reader adds unique audio voices for each character. Just like with Auto Play, each bubble loads automatically.

Tap the speaker icon in the control bar to turn enable Audio Support.

control bar

Tap to Read

If you want to control when every bubble appears, simply tap the skip forward icon. Doing so will automatically pause Auto Play or Audio Reader.

control bar

Free Scroll

At any time you can scroll/swipe. We’ll automatically pause Auto Play or Audio Reader if you scroll/swipe while either are playing.