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 humor that kept me going. I'm still trying to figure out the reviews that called this a ghost story, because it's definitely not, in spite of the ghostly characters that people its pages. The only part I really didn't like was the end, which felt like he got bored with the story and threw a bunch of extra pieces in to tie it all up abruptly. But oh! the satisfaction of finally being able to label this one "read"!!