Books like “The Scarlet Letter”

What to read after “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

About “The Scarlet Letter”

Another favorite book?

Or start with a well-known book

1
The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follett · 1989
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
In twelfth-century England a stonemason named Tom Builder dreams of raising a great cathedral. Around its construction gather a cunning prior, a noblewoman and a ruthless lord whose ambitions and feuds shape the lives of an entire town.
2
I, Claudius
Robert Graves · 1934
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Outcast Hero
- Betrayal
The emperor Claudius, dismissed by his family as a stammering fool, writes the hidden history of the Julio-Claudian house. From Augustus to the reign of Caligula he records the poisonings, exiles and betrayals that shaped Rome, and how he survived them by being thought harmless.
3
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas · 1844
Similar plot moves: “Revenge” and “Betrayal”
- Revenge
- Betrayal
Betrayed on the eve of his wedding and imprisoned for years, Edmond Dantès escapes with a fortune and returns under a new name. Patiently, he engineers the ruin of the men who stole his life.
4
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee · 2017
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Outcast Hero
A young woman in colonial Korea, Sunja, leaves home for Japan with a husband she barely knows and raises a family that lives as outsiders for generations. Through war and poverty, the household holds on to its dignity and its secrets.
5
The Wolf and the Woodsman
Ava Reid · 2021
Similar plot moves: “Outcast Hero” and “Forbidden Love”
- Outcast Hero
- Forbidden Love
Évike is the only woman in her pagan village with no magic, and her people treat her as an outcast. When the kingdom's holy warriors demand a sacrifice, she is handed to their one-eyed captain, a monster-hunter her village hates. To survive the winter forest, the two must rely on each other despite everything between them.
6
Corrupt
Penelope Douglas · 2015
Shared in the plot: revenge, wrong
Erika has crushed on Michael Crist, her best friend's older brother, for years. After a night that ends in scandal, she joins the same elite university as Michael and his friends, who hold her responsible for a past wrong. Their revenge turns into a dangerous game neither can control.
7
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy · 1891
Similar plot moves: “Outcast Hero” and “Forbidden Love”
Tess Durbeyfield, a poor country girl, is sent to wealthy relatives who share her family name. There she is wronged by a young man and later falls in love with Angel Clare, who knows nothing of her past. Society's judgement of her becomes the story's central cruelty.
8
Kristin Lavransdatter
Sigrid Undset · 1920
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Forbidden Love
In fourteenth-century Norway the headstrong Kristin defies her devout father to marry the charming Erlend. Their life together brings seven sons, guilt and hardship as the world shifts around them and her early choices return to weigh on her.
9
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Victor Hugo · 1831
Similar plot moves: “Outcast Hero” and “Forbidden Love”
- Outcast Hero
- Forbidden Love
Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, is kept hidden by the archdeacon Frollo. When the gypsy dancer Esmeralda is accused of witchcraft, several men desire or condemn her, and the cathedral becomes both her refuge and her trap. Set in 1482 Paris among beggars, judges and stone gargoyles.
10
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje · 1992
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Forbidden Love
- Betrayal
In a bombed Italian villa at the end of the Second World War, a nurse tends a badly burned patient who can no longer remember his name. As the others in the house circle him, fragments of his past as a desert explorer and his affair with a married woman resurface.
11
World Without End
Ken Follett · 2007
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Forbidden Love
- Betrayal
Two centuries after The Pillars of the Earth, four children in Kingsbridge witness a killing that binds their fates together. As plague sweeps the land, they struggle with love, ambition and the harsh rules of their age.
12
Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens · 1838
Similar plot moves: “Outcast Hero”
- Outcast Hero
An orphan raised in a workhouse runs away to London, where the thief Fagin takes him into a band of child pickpockets. Kind strangers try to rescue him while the criminals want him back for their own plans. The novel follows his search for a home and the mystery of his birth.