Nathaniel Hawthorne

The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic of gothic literature follows the Pyncheon family in pre- and post-colonial New England, in their ancestral home; the titular House of the Seven Gables. Published in 1851 at the height of the Gothic fiction craze, Hawthorne's book follows two time frames: one involves flashbacks to the late 17th century, while the other is set in the author's present day of the mid-19th century. We witness the events leading up to the Salem witch trials, and the construction of a house which came to epitomise the foreboding gloom of late Gothic architecture. We hear how the very construction of the house was unjust, the land was seized from its rightful owner via cynical accusations of witchcraft. The newly-built mansion is thought to harbor a curse when Colonel Pyncheon dies during its housewarming party. Thereafter this event overshadows the lives of the Pyncheon family members, who begin to feel the house and its grim legacy weigh on their shoulders.