The House of the Seven GablesIn the final years of the seventeenth century in a small New England town, the venerable Colonel Pyncheon decides to erect a ponderously oak-framed and spacious family mansion. It occupies the spot where Matthew Maule, `an obscure man', had lived in a log hut, until his execution for witchcraft. From the scaffold, Maule points his finger at the presiding Colonel and cries `God will give him blood to drink!' The fate of Colonel Pyncheon exerts a heavy influence on his descendants in the crumbling mansion for the next century and a half. Hawthorne called his novel a `Romance', drawing on the Gothic tradition which embraced and exploited the thrills of the supernatural. Unlike The Scarlet Letter, with its unrelentingly dark view of human nature and guilt, Hawthorne sought to write `a more natural and healthy product of my mind', a story which would show guilt to be a trick of the imagination. The tension between fantasy and a new realism underpins the novel's descriptive virtuosity. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. |
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Alice Pyncheon Amory Dwight Mayo appeared arched window artist beautiful behold better Blithedale Romance breath brought carpenter chair character child Clif Clifford Colonel Pyncheon countenance Cousin Hepzibah cried daguerreotype Daguerreotypist dark dead dear death door dream England eyes face fancied father feel figure FLOWER OF EDEN flowers garden gaze gentleman girl guest hand happy harpsichord Hawthorne's heart Holgrave Holgrave's human Jaffrey Jim Crow Judge Pyncheon Judge's kind lady live look man's Matthew Maule Maule's mind Miss Hepzibah morning Nathaniel Hawthorne natural never old house once parlor passed perhaps person Phoebe Phoebe's picture pleasant poor Hepzibah portrait Puritan Pyncheon-elm Pyncheon-house Pyncheon-street Romance Scarlet Letter scowl secret seemed sense Seven Gables shadow smile Sophia Peabody spirit stept stood story strange street sunshine things thought tion turned Twice-Told Tales Uncle Venner voice whole woman young youth zibah