In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family of Salem.

The greed and haughty pride of the Pyncheon family through the generations is mirrored in the gloomy decay of their seven-gabled mansion, where the family's enfeebled and impoverished relations now live. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family's salvation--or its downfall.

A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, Hawthorne's gothic Romance is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work that Henry James declared "the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel."

Synopsis

First published in 1851, The House of the Seven Gables is one of Hawthorne's defining works, a vivid depiction of American life and values, replete with brilliantly etched characters. The tale of a cursed house with a "mysterious and terrible past" and the generations linked to it, Hawthorne's chronicle of the Maule and Pyncheon families over two centuries reveals, in Mary Oliver's words, "lives caught in the common fire of history." In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family's salvation--or its downfall. Hawthorne called The House of the Seven Gables "a Romance," and freely bestowed upon it many fascinating gothic touches. A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, the novel is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work that Henry James declared "the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel." .

Reviews

On Jun 6 2016, a reader said:

I just found a hard back cover edition of this great book on my mother-in-laws book case. She received it for a Christmas present in 1941. It has a number 53 stamped into its back cover. I'm reading it now and enjoying the writers craft and story. I became intrigued with Hawthorne's style and decided to look it up. Thank you for your review and priceless information about the book and the author. I will treasure my copy and forever be grateful to my husbands sweet mother for giving me this window into the past through The House to the Seven Gables. A beautiful reading experience for years to come.

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Details

Seller: Pacific Arbor (US)
Seller's Inventory #: 10201
Title: The House of the Seven Gables
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Book Condition: New
Quantity Available: 1
Binding: Unknown
ISBN 10: 1433211971
ISBN 13: 9781433211973
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
This edition first published: 2008-02

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