The House of the Seven Gables
Ratings23
Average rating3.4
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."
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It took me a little while to figure out what was going on, but once I did I enjoyed this. I liked the weird family dynamics and the ‘curse' on the family. I had planned on reading this before my trip to Salem, but I think I'm glad I waited; having been to the house allowed me to see and understand things a bit better than I think I would've without having the house for reference.
I was suppose to read this my junior year of high school for a project. I didn't read it. I got an F on the project. I figured 7 years or so later it was time to get it read.
The whole scene where Pyncheon bites it, all I could think of is how Hawthorne is like a cat playing with its food before it gobbles it up.
Not sure that I'd recommend anyone to read it (there's better classic English literature out there) but it was interesting. My favourite part was the way the judge's death was described at the end.
