H.L. Menkin once said that Puritanism is the haunting fear that somewhere, someone may be having a good time.

And that is the topic of this month's book, The Scarlet Letter, The Puritans, and what happens to a poor couple when they had a little too much of a

good time. I'm joint this month by Julie Hartman. A former Harvard student, a recent Harvard student that we won't hold it against you,

so from basically the same place that this book takes place in and a co-host of a podcast with Dennis Prager.

Lucky me.

Who occasionally walks around these halls over here.

Julie, thank you for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me, Michael.

What's the book about?

The book takes place in 17th century Puritan, Massachusetts,

as you said, where no fun is allowed.

And it follows this beautiful woman, Hester Pren,

who had an extra marital affair.

Her husband is across the ocean, he went to England for a few years, he's some kind of academic,

and they had a loveless marriage.

It was even believed that he might have died at sea on his voyage, so he's been gone for

some years, and Hester decided to have an extramarital affair with none other than

the minister of the town, Arthur Dimsdale, and it begot them a child, Pearl, who is an impish, a slightly wicked little child, we can talk about the symbolism of Pearl. Anyway, it is discovered, of course, because she bears a child that she had this extramarital affair and the Puritan town utterly

scorns her. They condemn her to wear the scarlet letter, which we presume stands for adultery. They put her on

this scaffold, they make her stand in a pillory, and they say that she is supposed to be

a living sermon against sin and the entire town just hates her.

They are so awful to her.

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