Summary Early one morning, Hepzibah, who according to the previous owner’s will can live in the house as long as she wishes, arises, gazes at the miniature portrait of a delicate young man, and then goes into a paneled old room with a faded carpet, tables, a high-backed chair, and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 2-4Summary and Analysis Chapter 1
Summary On one of the side streets of a New England town stands a seven-gabled house with an enormous elm tree before its door. It is the ancestral Pyncheon house, owned by a family with a long tradition. It was built on the site of the house of Matthew Maule. […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 1Character List
Hepzibah Pyncheon The sixty-year-old spinster cousin of Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon and of Phoebe’s father; she is a kinsman to Phoebe; she has been granted the right to reside in the House of the Seven Gables during the remainder of her lifetime; she has Holgrave as a roomer, opens the cent-shop, […]
Read more Character ListAbout The House of the Seven Gables
About six months after the publication of The Scarlet Letter on March 16, 1850, Hawthorne began writing The House of the Seven Gables. On January 12, 1851, it was finished, and Hawthorne said he preferred it to the earlier romance. However, neither the general reading public nor the literary critics, […]
Read more About The House of the Seven GablesBook Summary
The House of the Seven Gables once a “show place” in a small New England town, now presents little evidence of its former grandeur. Wind, sun, storm, and neglect left its sides, shingles, and chimney crumbling. Its gray look is mottled here and there with moss. The lattice fence surrounding […]
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