Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

The House of the Seven Gables (World Digital Library Edition)

ebook
Published in 1851, The House of the Seven Gables was conceived by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a modern-day sequel to The Scarlet Letter, which had appeared the year before. Set in Salem, the story’s dramatic center revolves around two elderly characters, Hepzibah and Clifford Pyncheon, as they struggle to free themselves from a centuries-old family curse, ghostly forebears, and a crippling sense of hereditary guilt. They find themselves aided in their quest by their young cousin, Phoebe, and a mysterious daguerreotypist names Holgrave, who has taken up residence with them. Watching over this human drama, as if awaiting its outcome, is the brooding House of the Seven Gables, the Pyncheon ancestral home.

In this book Hawthorne hoped to dispel the gloom of the Puritan past that pervades The Scarlet Letter. Whether or not he succeeded has long been a matter of opinion. Hawthorne’s wife, Sophia, praised her husband’s new romance for its “dear home-loveliness and satisfaction,” while Herman Melville found it a damnably dark and subversive work: “[Hawthorne] says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes.”

Expand title description text
Publisher: Barnes & Noble World Digital Library

Kindle Book

  • Release date: May 1, 2002

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 0594090903
  • Release date: May 1, 2002

PDF ebook

  • ISBN: 0594090903
  • File size: 1049 KB
  • Release date: May 1, 2002

Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
PDF ebook
Kindle restrictions

Languages

English

Levels

Text Difficulty:9-12

Published in 1851, The House of the Seven Gables was conceived by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a modern-day sequel to The Scarlet Letter, which had appeared the year before. Set in Salem, the story’s dramatic center revolves around two elderly characters, Hepzibah and Clifford Pyncheon, as they struggle to free themselves from a centuries-old family curse, ghostly forebears, and a crippling sense of hereditary guilt. They find themselves aided in their quest by their young cousin, Phoebe, and a mysterious daguerreotypist names Holgrave, who has taken up residence with them. Watching over this human drama, as if awaiting its outcome, is the brooding House of the Seven Gables, the Pyncheon ancestral home.

In this book Hawthorne hoped to dispel the gloom of the Puritan past that pervades The Scarlet Letter. Whether or not he succeeded has long been a matter of opinion. Hawthorne’s wife, Sophia, praised her husband’s new romance for its “dear home-loveliness and satisfaction,” while Herman Melville found it a damnably dark and subversive work: “[Hawthorne] says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes.”

Expand title description text