The Scarlet Daughter

Summary

Rachel Rose delivers a vivid, feminist, and deeply satisfying debut that imagines the life of Pearl Prynne, the forgotten and scorned daughter at the center of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel, for an outspoken new generation fighting against the expectations of an oppressive society. 

Born under the stain of her mother Hester’s scarlet letter, Pearl spends her childhood as an outcast, bearing the burden of her mother’s shame. When fortuitous widowhood allows the pair to flee, their ocean voyage becomes an education for the precocious Pearl, who learns to navigate the sea and read the stars in tandem with the cruelty—and desires—of men. 

Life begins anew in England as Pearl desperately tries to outrun the trauma of her life in Salem. For the first time, she finds friendship in a curious boy named Isaac Newton. He studies furiously as Pearl paints with equal fervor, and soon her reputation as an artist takes flight. Offered a job as an apprentice to the king’s painter, Pearl moves to London, eager to make a name for herself. 

With her star on the rise and Isaac’s jealous pride threatening their love for one another, Pearl discovers that life in London is marked with hardship and tragedy at every turn. She finds solace in her painting and in her charity work, but realizes that despite the social ladder she is beginning to climb, she cannot bear to stand witness to the injustice that surrounds her and those like her. Rebellious and determined, Pearl takes on the powerful institutions that have crushed so many before her, exposing the hypocrisy at their heart. As they close in on her, she is forced to make an unbearable calculation: What is her freedom and independence worth? And just how much is she willing to pay for it? 

A masterclass in examining the human condition and what comes of literature’s most audacious women, The Scarlet Daughter is a seductive, bold, and unprecedented addition to Hawthorne’s literary canon that has enticed readers for nearly two hundred years.