The House of the Seven Gables (novel)

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Title The House of the Seven Gables
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Romance
Publisher Wildside Press
Released 1851
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 368
ISBN ISBN 0-8095-9875-2
This article is for the novel; for the US colonial house see The House of the Seven Gables

The House of the Seven Gables is a novel written in 1851 by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The novel begins:

Halfway 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.

The Pyncheon family actually existed and were ancestors of American novelist Thomas Pynchon. The House of the Seven Gables, the building that inspired the novel, is still standing in Salem, Massachusetts.

Contents

[edit] Major Characters

  • Hepzibah Pyncheon - Hepzibah is an unmarried older woman, a descendant of the Pyncheon who built the house of the title. She is from a high-society class but destitute. At the beginning of the novel, she has opened a cent-shop in the first floor of the house because of the financial ruin of the family.
  • Holgrave - a daguerrotypist who boards at the house.
  • Phoebe Pyncheon - a young cousin of Hepzibah's, Phoebe has grown up in the country without airs. She shows up unannounced and intends to visit for several weeks.
  • Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon - He is a well-to-do judge and political aspirant who lives on a comfortable estate out of town. He has designs on the house where Hepzibah lives. He so strongly resembles the "original" Colonel Pyncheon, who built the house, that some people mistake portraits of the ancestor for the descendant.
  • Clifford Pyncheon - Clifford is Hepzibah's elderly, nearly bed-ridden brother who comes to live in the house after being released from prison, where he was serving a sentence for a crime unspecified until the end of the novel, though it remains constantly a question of whether or not he is really capable of such a crime.

[edit] Main Themes

Hawthorne, always haunted by the sins of his ancestors in the Salem witch trials, examines guilt, retribution, and atonement in this novel. His Pyncheon family carries a great burden — for almost 200 years — as a result of the dishonest, amoral way that the land on which the titular house sits was acquired.

[edit] Influence

The novel was an inspiration for horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, who called it "New England's greatest contribution to weird literature" in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature". Seven Gables likely influenced Lovecraft's stories "The Picture in the House", "The Shunned House" and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 107.

[edit] External links


Nathaniel Hawthorne
Novels

The Blithedale Romance • Doctor Grimshaw's Secret • The Dolliver Romance • Fanshawe • The House of the Seven Gables • The Marble Faun • The Scarlet Letter
Tales
Twice-Told Tales • The Gray Champion • Sundays at Home • The Wedding-Knell • The Minister's Black Veil • The May-Pole of Merry Mount • The Gentle Boy • Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe • Little Annie's Ramble • Wakefield • A Rill from the Town-Pump • The Great Carbuncle • The Prophetic Pictures • David Swan • Sights from a Steeple • The Hollow of the Three Hills • The Toll-Gatherer's Day • The Vision of the Fountain • Fancy's Show Box • Dr. Heidegger's Experiment • Legends of the Province-House • The Haunted Mind • The Village Uncle • The Ambitious Guest • The Sister Years • Snow-Flakes • The Seven Vagabonds • The White Old Maid • Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure • Chippings with a Chisel • The Shaker Bridal • Night Sketches • Endicott and the Red Cross • The Lily's Quest • Foot-prints on the Sea-shore • Edward Fane's Rosebud • The Threefold Destiny
The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales • The Snow-Image • The Great Stone Face • Main-street • Ethan Brand • A Bell's Biography • Sylph Etherege • The Canterbury Pilgrims • Old News • The Man of Adamant • The Devil in Manuscript • John Inglefield's Thanksgiving • Old Ticonderoga • The Wives of the Dead • Little Daffydowndilly • My Kinsman, Major Molineux
Mosses from an Old Manse • The Old Manse • The Birth-Mark • A Select Party • Young Goodman Brown • Rappaccini's Daughter • Mrs. Bullfrog • Fire-Worship • Buds and Bird-Voices • Monsieur du Miroir • The Hall of Fantasy • The Celestial Rail-road • The Procession of Life • Feathertop • The New Adam and Eve • Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent • The Christmas Banquet • Drowne's Wooden Image • The Intelligence Office • Roger Malvin's Burial • P.'s Correspondence • Earth's Holocaust • Passages from a Relinquished Work • Sketches from Memory • The Old Apple-Dealer • The Artist of the Beautiful • A Virtuoso's Collection
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