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A cartoon version of the misfortunes that plague a prominent New England family because of greed and a two-hundred-year-old curse.
Donada Peter is an award-winning audiobook narrator with more than five hundred titles to her credit. A professional actress, she has appeared in films, on television, and in the theatre. British by birth, she now lives in California.
Uninterested in conventional professions such as law, medicine, or the ministry, Nathaniel chose instead to rely "for support upon my pen." After graduation, he returned to his hometown, wrote short stories and sketches, and chanced the spelling of his surname to "Hawthorne." Hawthorne's coterie consisted of transcendentalist thinkers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Although he did not subscribe entirely to the group's philosophy, he lived for six months at Brook Farm, a cooperative living community the transcendentalists established in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.
On July 9, 1942, Hawthorne married a follower of Emerson, Sophia Peabody, with whom he had a daughter, Una, and a son, Julian. The couple purchased a mansion in Concord, Massachusetts, that previously had been occupied by author Louisa May Alcott. Frequently in financial difficulty, Hawthorne worked at the custom houses in Salem and Boston to support his family and his writing. His peaceful life was interrupted when his college friend, Franklin Pierce, now president of the United States, appointed him U.S. consul at Liverpool, England, where he served for four years.
The publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850 changed the way society viewed Puritanism. Considered his masterpiece, the novel focuses on Hawthorne's recurrent themes of sin, guilt, and punishment. Some critics have attributed his sense of guilt to his ancestors' connection with the persecution of Quakers in seventeenth-century New England and their prominent role in the Salem witchcraft trials in the 1690s.
On May 19, 1864, Hawthorne died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, leaving behind several unfinished novels that were published posthumously. He is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
Author biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of The Scarlet Letter.
Among Hawthorne's peers at Maine's Bowdoin College: author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce, who would later become the country's 14th president.
In its first week of publication, The Scarlet Letter sold 4,000 copies.
Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, at the Pemigewasset House in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Ironically, former president Franklin Pierce had advised him to go there for his health.
Half-way down a by-street of one of our New England towns, stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst. The street is Pyncheon-street; the house is the old Pyncheon-house; and an elm-tree, of wide circumference, rooted before the door, is familiar to every town-born child by the title of the Pyncheon-elm. On my occasional visits to the town aforesaid, I seldom failed to turn down Pyncheon-street, for the sake of passing through the shadow of these two antiquities; the great elm-tree and the weather-beaten edifice.
The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance, bearing the traces not merely of outward storm and sunshine, but expressive also of the long lapse of mortal life, and accompanying vicissitudes that have passed within. Were these to be worthily recounted, they would form a narrative of no small interest and instruction, and possessing, moreover, a certain remarkable unity, which might almost seem the result of artistic arrangement. But the story would include a chain of events extending over the better part of two centuries, and, written out with reasonable amplitude, would fill a bigger folio volume, or a longer series of duodecimos, than could prudently be appropriated to the annals of all New England during a similar period. It consequently becomes imperative to make short work with most of the traditionary lore of which the old Pyncheon-house, otherwise known as the House of the Seven Gables, has been the theme. With a brief sketch, therefore, of the circumstances amid which the foundation of the house was laid, and arapid glimpse at its quaint exterior, as it grew black in the prevalent east wind pointing, too, here and there, at some spot of more verdant mossiness on its roof and walls, we shall commence the real action of our tale at an epoch not very remote from the present day. Still, there will be a connection with the long past; a reference to forgotten events and personages, and to manners, feelings, and opinions, almost or wholly obsolete; which, if adequately translated to the reader, would serve to illustrate how much of old material goes to make up the freshest novelty of human life. Hence, too, might be drawn a weighty lesson from the little-regarded truth, that the act of the passing generation is the germ which may and must produce good or evil fruit, in a far-distant time; that, together with the seed of the merely temporary crop, which mortals term expediency, they inevitably sow the acorns of a more enduring growth, which may darkly overshadow their posterity.
The House of the Seven Gables, antique as it now looks, was not the first habitation erected by civilized man on precisely the same spot of ground. Pyncheon-street formerly bore the humbler appellation of Maule's Lane, from the name of the original occupant of the soil, before whose cottage-door it was a cow-path.
Introduction Denis Donoghue Donoghue, Denis
Note on the Text
Chronology of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Life
The House of the Seven Gables
Selected Bibliography
1. Hawthorne considered this novel to be a romance, which in literary terms refers to a narrative, allegorical treatment of heroic, fantastic, or supernatural events. Do you think this term accurately describes the book? Why or why not?
2. What do you make of the relationship between interior consciousness and external appearance in the novel? How does this conflict, as experienced by each of the central characters, inform the novel? And how does the house serve as a metaphor for this struggle?
3. Discuss the theme of class and social structure in the novel. What do you think Hawthorne intends in his depiction of Hepzibah's and Clifford's slow decline, and the curse on the Pyncheons' house? Are these related in any way? What about the role of the Maules?
4. Is the house a kingdom or a prison? Neither, or both? What is the curse that afflicts the Pyncheons? Discuss.
5. Discuss the role played by Holgrave in the novel. How does his nomadic, rootless existence stand in contrast to the Pyncheons? How does his marriage to Phoebe complicate this?
6. Discuss the scene in which Clifford attempts to join the procession. How does this illuminate the fundamental struggle of the Pyncheon family?
Anonymous
Posted December 12, 2010
read this book years a go great book, you do no understand the book until you travel there and see the house in real life .. the house is something to see,to see how he lived hundred years ago is some to see. loved the hiding stair case .. they dont build houses and counting house like that any more.. any one who doesnt like the book needs to go see the house ..
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 5, 2012
I fell in love with Hawthorne after reading The Scarlet Letter in high school, so I decided to check out this book. I must say, I love it. You definitely do need an understanding of the time period to tolerate the writing as has been said by other reviewers. I don't mind his long-winded descriptions at all, and I think a lot of people that complain about it just don't know how to read anything that isn't modern. Anyways, great story, and it made me that much more excited when I actually got to travel and see the real house. Must read!
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I thought this book was great and did give off certain eerie vibes. It's true that there were many passages that were long, but if truly taken in they were filled with such depth that would truly make us question our own morals and way of thinking. I would recommend this book to not just any extreme literature buff, but to anyone looking to engross themselves in history and who dare to look into their own hearts and break the binds of society.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 23, 2006
Hawthorne combines 3 centuries of American history and 2 families misfortune in one of the greatest novels ever written by one of the greatest American writers ever known. If you like history, mystery, irony and think for yourself you will love this book.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 1, 2012
This version has a lot of problems with words being misspelled. It is hard to read!
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 2, 2013
Luv it!!!! I luv u nathaniel lol!!! XD
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Posted November 14, 2012
He is a great author, and his book is amazing! I have to read it for English, and I'm already in love with it.
Anonymous
Posted June 24, 2012
Should i buy this?
0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 20, 2012
Book
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 13, 2012
Are you guys using this as a chat room.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 12, 2012
Hello
0 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 10, 2012
Tet.
0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 4, 2012
Silently leaves
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 4, 2012
An eagle swoops down lands on his shoulder and caws quietly and i run quickly to SL
0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 16, 2012
Loved it ! Dont know why you people dont
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 30, 2011
NOW I KNOW WHY I HATED THIS BOOK 45 YEARS AGO, IT WAS REALLY STINKING THEN AND HAS NOT IMPROVED WITH AGE. KATHERINE HOWE'S FOREWORD READ LIKE A COLLEGE SNOB'S BOOK REPORT. I KNOW, I KNOW I DON'T APPRECIATE GREAT LITERATURE, I ACTUALLY DO BUT THIS READ WAS A STEAMING PILE OF... ENOUGH SAID.
0 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 14, 2010
Completely agree after seeing the incredible property love this book even more!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I enjoyed the premise and some of the characters in this classic. I would have liked a different conclusion. It is worth reading.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.lilio
Posted January 1, 2010
One of those books I never got around to, so it is a must read. Yes there is buried philosophy that is worthwhile, but tedious to the modern reader. Nevertheless, it is one of those books one should plow through. At least it was a free book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I can easily say this is probably the dullest novel I have ever laid eyes on. When you look at the cover of this book, it makes it seem as if this is a creepy, mysterious book. NOT!! Hawthorne spends pages and pages droning over meaningless descriptions of mediocre objects. For 328 pages there is almost no action or plot. Quite frankly, it's just boringggggggg! Hawthorne was capable of writing more interesting novels, and I would suggest reading The Scarlet Letter, a far superior book.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
A cartoon version of the misfortunes that plague a prominent New England family because of greed and a two-hundred-year-old curse.