The House of the Seven Gables (Enriched Classics)

I read the House of the Seven Gables about thirty five years ago. I enjoyed the book then and I enjoyed rereading it. Nathaniel Hawthorne has a way of turning a phrase. There are portions of the book that I have reread several times. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves to read the classics. Hawthorne details scenes and emotion in a brisk, but complex way. I felt, sometimes, I was living in New England. As a classic, House is very readable. I try not to analyze, to deeply, all of the reasons a writer chooses how to handle a subject. Mid-nineteenth century literature can be a joy to read, it rewards one with a tangible sense of history. If you enjoy reading House, try The Scarlet Letter.

I live across the bridge from Salem, Mass. in the quaint town of Beverly and have had the opportunity t visit this famous house. I had grown up so close to it yet never really knew the story. A friend of mine in Arizona had expressed an interest in the house and so I decided to buy the book and send it to her but before I did, I decided to read it myself. It was a fascinating book and I learned a lot about how the house came to be and it has a great ending. I will give this book a 5 star rating. It was made into a motion picture many years ago. It is a great book for the historian to read or anyone interested in reading about a house located in Salem, Mass While Salem is known as "The Witch City", the book is not about witches.

I just love Nathaniel Hawthorne, he is brilliant and is a master at creating a mood.

Hawthorne's work is a creepy classic -- one of the most interesting books to emerge from an entirely different era of American letters.

Visit Salem in October.

good

One of the classics. Definitely a must read for any age. I purchased this for my niece but I read the this book several times myself. Great read.

great book

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in the early times of this country and Hawthorne uses his vivid word choice to describe every little piece of what is going on. This can get quite boring at times because of the dry reading that is made from it. One example of this is where he goes on for over ten pages of describing every detail of the Pyncheon garden. After awhile of this descriptive word choice and very little dialogue, the book starts to become very dry. At certain points of the novel it becomes very hard to read and understand what is going on. What saves this book is the very intense story line that is going on in this book. The main story line is revenge and greed. The difference in the characters in this book of being nice and kind and then other characters that are evil are greedy provide foils for this book. This helps the readers define that people are either good or evil and the differences between the two are quite large. This makes readers interested because it makes the characters relatable and the readers woot for good to triumph over evil.

The reason i gave this book 3 stars is that my opinion is split on if I liked the book or not. I loved the story line and how the plot unfolded. The characters were well written and the plot was very well thought out and executed perfectly. The thing that I did not like is that some points were just described too much. At points it was hard to understand the plot and the characters with all the verbage that Hawthorne uses. He intertwined describing and the plot line together and at some parts it was hard to keep everything in check. Overall this was a good book except for the wordage that Hawthorne uses but that is typical for his work. I would recommend this book to other readers.

This beautifully written book reads slowly, because the complex sentences & original thoughts require time to digest & enjoy. So, I choose my reading time carefully, when I'll stay alert & concentrate enough to get it the first time.