The House of the Seven Gables (Norton Critical Edition)

by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert S. Levine (Editor)

book data

3,351 ratings, 3.33 average rating, 313 reviews (more data...)

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published

November 1st 2005 (first published 1850) by W. W. Norton

binding

Paperback, 502 pages

characters

Phoebe, Clifford, Alice Pyncheon, the daguerreotypist, ...more

isbn

0393924769 (isbn13: 9780393924763)

description

This all-new edition of Hawthorne's celebrated 1851 novel is based on The Ohio State University Press's Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Ha...more

[close] This all-new edition of Hawthorne's celebrated 1851 novel is based on The Ohio State University Press's Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is accompanied by thorough explanatory annotations and an insightful introduction to the novel and antebellum culture by Robert S. Levine.

"Contexts" brings together a generous selection of primary materials intended to provide readers with background on the novel's central themes. Historical documents include accounts of Salem's history by Thomas Maule, Robert Calef, Joseph B. Felt, and Charles W. Upham, which Hawthorne drew on for The House of the Seven Gables. The importance of the house in antebellum America—as a manifestation of the body, a site of genealogical history, and a symbol of the republic's middle class—is explored through the diverse writings of William Andrus Alcott, Edgar Allan Poe, and J. H. Agnew, among others. The impact of technological developments on the novel, especially of daguerreotypy, is considered through the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Gustave de Beaumont, and Alexis de Tocqueville, among others. Also included are two of Hawthorne's literary sketches—"Alice Doane's Appeal" and "The Old Apple Dealer"—that demonstrate the continuity of Hawthorne's style, from his earlier periodical writing to his later career as a novelist.

"Criticism" provides a comprehensive overview of the critical commentary on the novel from its publication to the present. Among the twenty-seven critics represented are Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, Nina Baym, Eric Sundquist, Richard H. Millington, Alan Trachtenberg, Amy Schrager Lang, and Christopher Castiglia.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide. [close]

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01/14/08

Jason Pettus rated it:

Read in January, 2008

(My full review of this book is much larger than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read 100 supposed "classics" for the first time, then write reports on whether or not I think they deserve the label

Book #2: House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story in a nutshell:
Like any good horror story, the spooky House o...more (My full review of this book is much larger than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read 100 supposed "classics" for the first time, then write reports on whether or not I think they deserve the label

Book #2: House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story in a nutshell:
Like any good horror story, the spooky House of the Seven Gables actually tells two stories at once: it is simultaneously the historic tale of the cursed Pyncheon family, concurrent owners of a reputedly haunted house in Salem, Massachusetts for over two centuries now, as well as the specific tale of the most recent generation of this family, dealing with the same curse that has haunted all the Pyncheons since Puritan times. It seems that the original owner of the seven-gabled house, old Colonel Pyncheon, ended up getting a man named Maule killed as a witch in order to weasel out of the construction costs of the house itself, even deliberately knowing that the man was innocent; Maule, it seems, as a result issued an infamous curse on the Pyncheon family as he died, one that has haunted any member in those two centuries who's had anything to do with the house in question. In the meanwhile, though, another persistent rumor has been that the Pyncheon family actually owns a whole lot more land in Salem than the simple Seven Gables estate, and that if they could simply find the 200-year-old evidence then they could get the state government to retroactively reimburse them and make them rich, rich, stinkin' filthy rich; and in that respect, House of the Seven Gables is as much a morality tale as it is a horror or haunted-house one, in that any Pyncheon over the decades who takes an interest in finding this old evidence just ends up obsessed with the subject to their ultimate ruin, as surely as the supposed magical curse that also exists, along the tormented ghosts of all those cursed Pyncheons who still supposedly reside within the house's walls.

Like I said, as a result the book ends up telling two stories at once, with the majority of it dedicated to the current Pyncheon family at the time of the story itself (mid-1800s): bitter spinster Hepzibah, for example, who has ended up having to open a cent-store on the first floor (basically the Victorian equivalent of a convenience store) in order to make ends meet; her elderly brother Clifford, a broken sad-sack who has just gotten out of jail after spending 30 years there for a crime he didn't commit; Judge Jaffrey, a haughty and hard old man who is thinking of running for governor, and who has become convinced that Clifford knows where the hidden Pyncheon real-estate evidence is; and the sweet-as-sunshine Young Phoebe, a rural cousin who is visiting that summer in order to help out this terminally dour family, and who is like a freakin' little rainbow compared to the rest of the family's endless thunderstorms. Combine with a lot of melodrama, a series of events that are semi-supernatural in nature, and a liberal sprinkling of backstory about the doomed Pyncheons of yore, and you have yourself one very Victorian novel indeed.

The argument for it being a classic:...(less)

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12/02/08

Alan Fay rated it:

recommends it for: nobody

This is the worst book ever written in the English language that is somehow celebrated against far superior novels from the same era, somehow earning him enough respect to have his crusty face emblazoned onto the Library of Congress.

If the story were to take place in modern day Atlanta, it would be about some inbred, old money steel magnolia losing her shit up in Buckhead, and dragging her family down with her while she squanders what little remains of their inheritance on palm reade...more This is the worst book ever written in the English language that is somehow celebrated against far superior novels from the same era, somehow earning him enough respect to have his crusty face emblazoned onto the Library of Congress.

If the story were to take place in modern day Atlanta, it would be about some inbred, old money steel magnolia losing her shit up in Buckhead, and dragging her family down with her while she squanders what little remains of their inheritance on palm readers and telemarketers. Throw in the distant trailer-trash relative from Woodstock, a bum selling Cutco knives, the Gulf War Syndrome addled veteran brother, and Wayne Mason. Besides waiting for people to stop talking and describing things, the rest of the plot centers around walking around the house and hearing the characters complain about their lack of money and prestige.

You take that story, rewind it about 175 years, add some baroque embellishment to every sentence you write, using the exclamation mark liberally, and you've got THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES!

I always imagine Nathaniel Hawthorne as being the trust-fund baby of his time. Having bored himself on sherry and biscuits ("How exhausting"), decides to forgo taking care of his plants, and "retire to his study" to pen a novel for us. He's like the writer of today who leaves his meditation room, hops in his Mercedes-Benz to the nearest Applebee's and scrawls another "Zen and business" book on a cocktail napkin, turning 50 pages of bullshit into 198 in 14 point San Serif font that every pink bubble-faced middle manager is going to have on their office shelf by the end of the week. Nathaniel Hawthorne was that guy, in his day.

Why does he get praise for this crap? I think saying that "there are dark psychological themes throughout" is a nice way of saying "having read this, I couldn't decide if I should use the hose to pipe carbon monoxide into my house or to hang myself - oh bother, there's another page." The only interpretation I have is that his contemporaries just wanted to be nice to him and gentleman-like, encouraging him every now and then but for the most part trying to ignore him in the hopes he'd find a different hobby to harp about. Fast-forward and everyone's like "Damn, he must be good!" and for lack of imagination or god-forbid, actually reading the damn book to see if it's any good, it's going to appear on every high school student's summer reading list until the end of times.(less)

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07/30/07

Shawn rated it:

(review of isbn 0451524365)

recommends it for: few

This book dares you to read it. I hadn't thought about putting it up here, because, in fact, I have never finished it. I have the distinction of having had the book assigned to me no less than three times in various college courses, and never once read the whole thing.

The problem is I do not care about a single character in this novel. A rich family is cursed because they screwed over a poor family? Great. Where's the conflict? I hate rich people, and didn't want to see them redeeme...more

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01/30/08

Andrea rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964427)

bookshelves: classics

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Andrea by: the house itself

I did it, DTA!!! And I can almost feel the handsome Mr. Hawthorne smiling down on me as I type. :-)
After touring the house in July 2007, I felt the least I could do was to read the book that made the house famous. While I'm not generally a fan of 19th century American literature (give me Dickens any day!), I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. By the 3rd chapter, Hawthorne's language had drawn me into the story, but it was his occasional flights of slyly sarcastic hum...more

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12/23/07

Skylar Burris rated it:

(review of isbn 0553212702)

bookshelves: classics

This mysterious novel about a cursed family and its mansion is one of Hawthorne's few works with a happy ending. Perhaps Hawthorne, when he wrote it, had come to some degree of peace with the curse that was rumored to have been placed upon his own family. The novel is interesting, and it contains some profound insights. It boasts one of Hawthorne's "reformer" characters, Holgrave. Hawthorne did not seem to have much faith in reform and reformers, but Holgrave is a more sympathetic c...more

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03/27/08

Joe rated it:

bookshelves: classics-that-suck

I'm so glad you're dead, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

So this is a classic horror novel in which nothing at all happens for a few hundred pages except the description of some house, an old hag selling oatmeal, and some guy who may or may not have hypnotized the other chick who's boarding there. There might be something scary but I was too busy falling asleep to notice. If Hawthorne were alive, he'd be a zombie, which I'd totally be okay with because then he could get shot in the head by zom...more

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11/29/08

Christie rated it:

When I finished this story, I found it hard to care about it. It is my least favorite of Hawthorne's books. The characters were mostly unlikable, the plodding plot fattened up with many pages of useless description that added nothing. It was a relief to be done with it, an achievement that can only be attributed to my stubborn refusal to stop reading once engaged, no matter how annoying the material. :o) It does feel irreverent to be trashing Nathaniel Hawthorne. But time would be better spent ...more

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10/19/07

Vanessa Baish rated it:

Read in July, 2007

How can you not love a ghost story? Even better, a ghost story that unravels to reveal how superstition can obscure truth (in this case, science.) I have read Hawthorne before and should not have been suprised, but I was, regardless, surprised by Hawthorne's sharp criticism of superstition. Hawthorne's language (quaint) belies the modernity of his resolution.

He also has an obvious fondness for quirky characters, which is sweet.

You do have to push youy way past a certain p...more

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06/19/09

Chris rated it:

Read in June, 2009

I'd been meaning to read this for at least the past 16 years. I'd left my paperback in the seat pocket of an airplane some years back after being introduced to the Maule-Pyncheon legend, and a peek at Hepzibah's ill-advised venture to run a cent-shop.

During my recent move, I discovered that I had another copy of the book, one I filched from my grandparents' house and that surely belonged to my father or uncle, based on the 45-cent cover price. I love that old-book smell.

T...more

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06/22/09

Jonathan rated it:

bookshelves: fiction, usa-literature

The House of the Seven Gables

At times the story seems to drag on as Hawthorne slips into descriptions about Clifford that seem almost irrelevant. These laborious descriptions have an affect of lulling the reader to sleep, almost as if one was in that beaten down old house of seven gables; as if Hawthorne was attempting to convey in his seemingly decadent and extraneous descriptions concepts and feelings of old, overgrown, and lethargic despair. Pain long held and long forgotten by ...more

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05/25/09

Judgeglock rated it:

(review of isbn 0375756876)

Read in May, 2009

For years I think I confused this book with "Anne of Green Gables," and I thought this was kind of a proto-little house on the prairie. The word "gable" threw me off. It turns out it's a cool old haunted house story.

It took me a long while to get into it (I was stuck on page fifty for about a month), because Hawthorne can certainly ramble with the best of the Victorian writers. It is impressive in a sort of abstract way that he can spend three pages descr...more

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11/07/08

Sean rated it:

Read in November, 2008

I remember thinking Hawthorne was really boring and dry when we had to read the scarlet letter in high school, so it was a great surprise to find such a thoughtful, playful, and ironic narrative voice in this great little novel. no wonder Melville was such a fan! the romantic lead is an anarchist, hypnotizing photographer (actually daguerrotypist) who can see ghosts- how cool is that?

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12/31/08

Kristen rated it:

(review of isbn 0517141108)

bookshelves: 1001-books-before-you-die, classics

Read in January, 2009

So far this is my favorite Hawthorn novel, although to say that is deceiving. I have only read “The House of the Seven Gables” and “The Scarlet Letter” which I loathed… even seeing the cover of the “Scarlet Letter” brings on waves of nausea which only large quantities of sunshine and a good dose of trashy horror novels can cure. But that was long ago, and I am a much more mature reader now, besides, people call this a horror novel.

They Lie.

This is not a ho...more So far this is my favorite Hawthorn novel, although to say that is deceiving. I have only read “The House of the Seven Gables” and “The Scarlet Letter” which I loathed… even seeing the cover of the “Scarlet Letter” brings on waves of nausea which only large quantities of sunshine and a good dose of trashy horror novels can cure. But that was long ago, and I am a much more mature reader now, besides, people call this a horror novel.

They Lie.

This is not a horror novel… It’s some sort of family drama/morality tale with a smattering of bad romance thrown in. So is it terrible? No, Hawthorn does have a way with words… but I also believe that he thinks his readers have the short term memory of a melon, therefore he has a tendency to continually bash the reader over the head with an idea until he is absolutely positive that even a mouth breathing troglodyte will not only understand, but also have it burned into the interior of their skull.

Short Summary: Loooong ago a maniacal Puritan leader by the name of Pyncheon falsely executed a local by the name of Matthew Maule by claiming he was a wizard and in league with the devil. As he was hung, Maule uttered a curse on both Pyncheon and his descendents. Pyncheon then takes over Maule’s land, plows his house under and builds his own enormous dwelling on top of it – a house with Seven Gables. Flash forward to the 19th century and we have the descendants of Pyncheon, still living in the house and suffering as their family’s wealth, status and sanity have dwindled to almost nothing. The elderly Hepzibah Pyncheon(that’s a female name by the way) is forced to open a penny shop to try to bring food in. Enter Pheobe Pyncheon, a niece who has come to stay with Hepzibah and is full of life and vitality. They run the shop, do some gardening and entertain Clifford (Hepzibah’s brother) all the while living in fear of their cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon who seems to want something from them.

There were some parts of this book I enjoyed, and the over all concept was interesting… the sins of the father shall be paid for by the sons, but there is a lot that is left unexplained. And the reader is never sure if there truly is a curse or if the fear of a curse is what has kept the Pyncheon family down for all of these generations. Their sense of pride is almost a physical character in the book. In truth there is only one likeable character in the book, and that’s Pheobe… and Hawthorn is so determined to make us like her that he goes on and on about everything she does, how she looks, how bloody cheerful she is, how everything is better as long as Pheobe is around… to the point that the reader hopes a ghost either gets her so that we don’t have to read any more about her or grabs the rest of the household so that she can live in peace.

I understand the historical significance of Hawthorn’s works, and his mastery of the language. However this particular book becomes almost as suffocating as the house itself, dreary, stifling, repetitious and sadly… the reader may find themselves searching for a way to escape (much as Clifford does)… lucky for us the escape is much easier than it is for the characters. There are other classics that I would recommend before digging into this one. It’s not a difficult read, after the first 15 pages or so the language clicks and you can read it quite easily… it’s just not an overly exciting read, nor is it an overly rewarding read.
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05/28/09

rr added it

I forget how gothic Hawthorne can be, and gothic this book certainly is. But two non-gothic things struck me especially as I read. The first was the characterization of Hepzibah Pyncheon. I was initially annoyed (really annoyed) at Hawthorne for his slightly mocking treatment of her--and then I realized that by using such a tone himself Hawthorne actually frees his readers up to rally around Hepzibah more whole-heartedly. A wonderful author who will elevate a character at his own expense! T...more

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02/10/08

Peter rated it:

(review of other edition)

Read in February, 2008

A fabulous book. I had never really read Hawthorn before, and picked this up after reading some of his letters from Brook Farm. It's a tale of the ruin and decay of a wealthy new england family; wealth, corruption and death, sinister, with an omenous creeping quality, and a surprisingly scooby-doo-esque, happy ending!

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10/26/08

Clif Hostetler rated it:

(review of isbn 1419310623)

bookshelves: novel

Read in November, 2008

The House of the Seven Gables begins with a preface by the author that identifies the work as a romance, not a novel. That may be the author's preference, but I think most romance fans will be disappointed if they read this book. The book is a classic by a famous American author, so it deserves to be read. Once you finish the book and look over the complete plot, you can see how romantic love has healed a 200-year family curse. Therefore, in that regard it is a romance. However, the experien...more The House of the Seven Gables begins with a preface by the author that identifies the work as a romance, not a novel. That may be the author's preference, but I think most romance fans will be disappointed if they read this book. The book is a classic by a famous American author, so it deserves to be read. Once you finish the book and look over the complete plot, you can see how romantic love has healed a 200-year family curse. Therefore, in that regard it is a romance. However, the experience of reading the book is more like wondering through a dreary haunted labyrinth. I did not find it enjoyable to read.

I suppose the book can be considered a parable with a message aimed at the stiff necked 19th Century New England descendants of the Puritans. They are a people who behave in proper ways, but have an ancestral history of executing their neighbors on trumped up charges of witchcraft. They are haunted by a secret guilt of association because of the actions of their ancestors. The story told by this book is about the Pyncheon family that parallels this New England story at large.

The book's narrative comes as close as possible to being a ghost story while still remaining within the world of realism. I can imagine that a reader who believes in ghosts can come away from this story with the impression that it is indeed about ghosts. Likewise, another reader who doesn't believe in ghosts will say the story is about people who suspect that there may be ghosts in their lives who are intent on mischief. Either way Nathaniel Hawthorne skillfully weaves a family story filled with angst.

One feature of the book that surprised me was the role of Mesmerism (today we call it hypnotism). As described in this book it appears to be occult magic. Likewise, a lot of the melancholia described in this book would today be called clinical depression. Thank goodness for the character of Phoebe in the story. Her young sunny disposition is a breath of fresh air into an otherwise dreary environment. She’s a reminder of the eternal possibility of renewal brought by young people to human society.

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10/01/08

Jen rated it:

(review of isbn 0375756876)

bookshelves: 2008-read, fiction, lit-major, mysteries-n-thrills

Read in October, 2008

recommended to Jen by: My 10th grade English teacher.

Catching up on my American Lit classics. Boy, Hawthorne sure loves to pack a lot of words into every sentence! A melodrama of sorts, but tempered by Hawthorne's delight in the ironic. I got a kick out of the book.

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01/16/09

Liz rated it:

(review of isbn 0451505565)

Read in January, 2009

Once again, the descriptions in this book take priority over plot, although the plot is interesting and unfolds with some surprises. I had never read this book, and when we were in New England this fall, we visited the House of Seven Gables in Salem, Mass. Unfortunately we did not go in, as it was late in the day by the time we got there (after spending too much time on cemetery tours). Now that I have read the story, it would be fun to go back to the house and see if it has been set up to re...more

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01/08/09

Jason rated it:

(review of isbn 0554024098)

bookshelves: classics

Read in December, 2008

I usually don't mind the florid style of this type of writing, but Hawthorne overdoes it even for my tastes on this one. I don't mind the embedded clauses and everlasting sentences in and of themselves, but Hawthorne needs to be just a tad more selective with his high rhetoric. It's much more powerful if you mix it up a bit.

The other interesting thing about this book is that, unlike most novelists, Hawthorne's moralizing is far superior to his storytelling. I actually enjoyed the ...more

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05/30/09

Tiffany Anderson rated it:

Read in June, 2009

This book probably deserves 4 stars, but I can't give it since it took me 150 pages to really get into the book. Hawthorne spent most of the book on the character development and history of the Pyncheon family. I spent the first 150 pages wondering what the point of the book was going to be, and then the last 75 pages I couldn't put it down. I don't usually like to re-read books, but I do want to re-read this one, which is also why it probably deserves 4 stars. So, I admit, I need to re-read bec...more

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"He had that sense, or inward prophecy,-- which a young man had better never have been born than not to have, and a mature man had better die at once than utterly to relinquish,-- that we are not doomed to creep on forever in the old bad way, but that, this very now, there are harbingers abroad of a golden era, to be accomplished in his own lifetime." More quotes...