The House of the Seven Gables | Page 3

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THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES
by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTORY NOTE AUTHOR'S PREFACE I. THE OLD
PYNCHEON FAMILY II. THE LITTLE SHOP-WINDOW III. THE
FIRST CUSTOMER IV. A DAY BEHIND THE COUNTER V. MAY
AND NOVEMBER VI. MAULE'S WELL VII. THE GUEST VIII.
THE PYNCHEON OF TO-DAY IX. CLIFFORD AND PHOEBE X.
THE PYNCHEON GARDEN XI. THE ARCHED WINDOW XII.
THE DAGUERREOTYPIST XIII. ALICE PYNCHEON XIV.
PHOEBE'S GOOD-BY XV. THE SCOWL AND SMILE XVI.
CLIFFORD'S CHAMBER XVII. THE FLIGHT OF TWO OWLS
XVIII. GOVERNOR PYNCHEON XIX. ALICE'S POSIES XX. THE
FLOWER OF EDEN XXI. THE DEPARTURE

INTRODUCTORY NOTE. THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES.

IN September of the year during the February of which Hawthorne had
completed "The Scarlet Letter," he began "The House of the Seven
Gables." Meanwhile, he had removed from Salem to Lenox, in
Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he occupied with his family a
small red wooden house, still standing at the date of this edition, near
the Stockbridge Bowl.
"I sha'n't have the new story ready by November," he explained to his
publisher, on the 1st of October, "for I am never good for anything in
the literary way till after the first autumnal frost, which has somewhat
such an effect on my imagination that it does on the foliage here about
me-multiplying and brightening its hues." But by vigorous application
he was able to complete the new work about the middle of the January
following.
Since research has disclosed the manner in which the romance is
interwoven with incidents from the history of the Hawthorne family,
"The House of the Seven Gables" has acquired an interest apart from
that by which it first appealed to the public. John Hathorne (as the
name was then spelled), the great-grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne,
was a magistrate at Salem in the latter part of the seventeenth century,
and officiated at the famous trials for witchcraft held there. It is of
record that he used peculiar severity towards a certain woman who was
among the accused; and the husband of this woman prophesied that
God would take revenge upon his wife's persecutors. This circumstance
doubtless furnished a hint for that piece of tradition in the book which
represents a Pyncheon of a former generation as having persecuted one
Maule, who declared that God would give his enemy "blood to drink."
It became a conviction with The Hawthorne family that a curse had
been pronounced upon its members, which continued in force in the
time of The romancer; a conviction perhaps derived from the recorded
prophecy of The injured woman's husband, just mentioned; and, here
again, we have a correspondence with Maule's malediction in The story.

Furthermore, there occurs in The "American Note-Books" (August 27,
1837), a reminiscence of The author's family, to the following effect.
Philip English, a character well-known in early Salem annals, was
among those who suffered from John Hathorne's magisterial harshness,
and he maintained in consequence a lasting feud with the old Puritan
official. But at his death English left daughters, one of whom is said to
have married the son of Justice John Hathorne, whom English had
declared he would never forgive. It is scarcely necessary to point out
how clearly this foreshadows the final union of those hereditary foes,
the Pyncheons and Maules, through the marriage of Phoebe and
Holgrave. The romance, however, describes the Maules as possessing
some of the traits known to have been characteristic of the Hawthornes:
for example, "so long as any of the race were to be found, they had
been marked out from other men--not strikingly, nor as with a sharp
line, but with an effect that was felt rather than spoken of--by an
hereditary characteristic of reserve." Thus, while the general suggestion
of the Hawthorne line and its fortunes was followed in the romance, the
Pyncheons taking the place of The author's family, certain
distinguishing marks of the Hawthornes were assigned to the imaginary
Maule posterity.
There are one or two other points which indicate Hawthorne's method
of basing his compositions, the result in the main of pure invention, on
the solid ground of particular facts. Allusion is made, in the first
chapter of the "Seven Gables," to a grant of lands in Waldo County,
Maine, owned by the Pyncheon family. In the "American Note-Books"
there is an entry, dated August 12, 1837, which speaks of the
Revolutionary general, Knox, and his land-grant in Waldo County, by
virtue of which the owner had hoped to establish an estate on the
English plan, with a tenantry to make it profitable for him. An incident
of much greater importance in the story is the supposed murder of one
of the Pyncheons by his nephew, to whom we are