The House of the Seven Gables (Diversion Classics)

Nathaniel Hawthorne

May 2016 · Diversion Books

About this ebook

Featuring an appendix of discussion questions, the Diversion Classics edition is ideal for use in book groups and classrooms.

Alone in a quiet New England village stands a solitary, brooding mansion with a dark past. Within its walls dwell the dwindling and doomed Pyncheon family. Descendants of Puritans, it is rumored their home and family has been cursed by a wizard unjustly put to death by the greedy Colonel Pyncheon. Since then, their family line has been choked by misfortune, poverty, and gruesome deaths. The spinster Hepzibah, one of the last Pyncheons, struggles to make ends meet, opening a cent shop on the porch of the Pyncheon home just to survive. Her existence is solitary until both the mysterious Holgrave and sweet young relative, Phoebe, from the countryside arrive, but the struggles do not end even as a strange romance blooms. Are the Pyncheon’s misfortunes mere coincidence—or has the curse come to consume them all for the greed of those who came before them?

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About the author

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. When he was four years old, his father died. Years later, with financial help from his maternal relatives who recognized his literary talent, Hawthorne was able to enroll in Bowdoin College. Among his classmates were the important literary and political figures Horatio Bridge, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Franklin Pierce. These friends supplied Hawthorne with employment during the early years after graduation while Hawthorne was still establishing himself as a legitimate author. Hawthorne's first novel, Fanshawe, which he self-published in 1828, wasn't quite the success that he had hoped it would be. Not willing to give up, he began writing stories for Twice-Told Tales. These stories established Hawthorne as a leading writer. In 1842, Hawthorne moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where he wrote a number of tales, including "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "Young Goodman Brown," that were later published as Mosses from an Old Manse. The overall theme of Hawthorne's novels was a deep concern with ethical problems of sin, punishment, and atonement. No one novel demonstrated that more vividly than The Scarlet Letter. This tale about the adulterous Puritan Hester Prynne is regarded as Hawthorne's best work and is a classic of American literature. Other famous novels written by Hawthorne include The House of Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance. In 1852, Hawthorne wrote a campaign biography of his college friend Franklin Pierce. After Pierce was elected as President of the United States, he rewarded Hawthorne with the Consulship at Liverpool, England. Hawthorne died in his sleep on May 19, 1864, while on a trip with Franklin Pierce.