the house of seven gables
The House of the Seven Gables By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Book 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 it is in ruin. The lawn in front, and what must have been a spacious garden at the rear, long since have missed the care of the cultivator's hand. There in front, to the right of the imposing entrance, is a small door adjacent to a window of what obviously was once a shop.
The house reflects the unfortunate circumstances under which it was built some 160 years before by Colonel Pyncheon, one of the early Puritan settlers on the bleak New England coast.
The site upon which the house stood originally belonged to a man of poor circumstances named Matthew Maule. In the center of the site was a wonderful spring of sweet flowing water. Colonel Pyncheon would build his mansion on no other site. To obtain it he was instrumental in Matthew Maule's being charged with witchcraft, for which Maule was hanged. On the gallows, Maule cried out that the Pyncheons would forever be cursed.
No sooner had the cruel and grasping Colonel Pyncheon completed his beautiful and imposing House of the Seven Gables than he died of a strange death on the very day the townspeople had been invited to its opening.
The curse of Matthew Maule, some said, persists in plaguing the old house and its inhabitants. Now over a century and a half later, the sole family member inhabiting the old place is Hepzibah Pyncheon, an aging old maid. There is also a Mr. Holgrave, a daguerreotypist and artist, who rents upstairs apartments.
One day a pretty young girl arrives at the old house; she is Phoebe Pyncheon. Hepzibah is impressed with her niece's cheerful, wholesome, and helpful disposition and permits her to stay for a week or two.
Somehow, despite
Book 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 it is in ruin. The lawn in front, and what must have been a spacious garden at the rear, long since have missed the care of the cultivator's hand. There in front, to the right of the imposing entrance, is a small door adjacent to a window of what obviously was once a shop.
The house reflects the unfortunate circumstances under which it was built some 160 years before by Colonel Pyncheon, one of the early Puritan settlers on the bleak New England coast.
The site upon which the house stood originally belonged to a man of poor circumstances named Matthew Maule. In the center of the site was a wonderful spring of sweet flowing water. Colonel Pyncheon would build his mansion on no other site. To obtain it he was instrumental in Matthew Maule's being charged with witchcraft, for which Maule was hanged. On the gallows, Maule cried out that the Pyncheons would forever be cursed.
No sooner had the cruel and grasping Colonel Pyncheon completed his beautiful and imposing House of the Seven Gables than he died of a strange death on the very day the townspeople had been invited to its opening.
The curse of Matthew Maule, some said, persists in plaguing the old house and its inhabitants. Now over a century and a half later, the sole family member inhabiting the old place is Hepzibah Pyncheon, an aging old maid. There is also a Mr. Holgrave, a daguerreotypist and artist, who rents upstairs apartments.
One day a pretty young girl arrives at the old house; she is Phoebe Pyncheon. Hepzibah is impressed with her niece's cheerful, wholesome, and helpful disposition and permits her to stay for a week or two.
Somehow, despite