House of the Seven Gables

The action of the novel is built around an old mansion of the Pinchen family. Seven gabled gables of this gloomy wooden building have been rising for one and a half centuries on Pinchenova Street in one of the towns of New England . This land once belonged to Matthew Mol. Colonel Pinchen tried unsuccessfully to seize the plot he liked from Maul, and when the hunt for the Salem witches began , he accused his opponent of witchcraft. Before his execution, Maul managed to impose an eternal curse on Pinchen and his descendants.

During the housewarming celebration, the colonel died in an armchair under his own portrait. In the family of his descendants, misfortunes followed one after another. The townspeople talked that all this was due to the curse of Matthew Maul. By the middle of the 19th century, the Pinchenov clan completely crushed. Gefsib, the old maid of unattractive appearance, who, burning with shame, was forced to open petty trade on the ground floor, remained in the house. Brother Clifford, who spent 30 years in prison on charges of murder, which he did not commit, joins her. Brother and sister live in the shadow of a curse gravitating over their race. Clifford's frustrated nerves make him think about suicide more often than not at the thought of his broken life.

Old Judge Pincheng, who looks and looks like his unrighteous ancestor, is trying to trick Clifford into the secret of his missing family wealth, threatening him with imprisonment in a madhouse - just as he once sent him to jail. When the judge is found dead in the same fatal chair, Gefsib and Clifford, fearing another unjust murder charge, flee in panic to the nearest railway station and leave the city.

The gloomy shadows are scattered by the young generation - Phoebe's engineer , brought up on a country farm and living with Gefsiba, her relative, and photography enthusiast Holgrave, who is working in the far wing of the house on an essay about the "fall of the Pinchen house." There is sympathy between the young people, and the romance ends with their marriage. Since Holgrave is descended from Matthew Maul, the disputed land returns to the descendants of the latter. Thus, the curse loses force.

The House of the Seven Gables is a 17th-century building that actually exists in Salem . In the middle of the XIX century, Hawthorne often came here to visit the mistress of the house - his cousin Suzanne. However, by that time the building was rebuilt so that only three of the seven gables were preserved.

The author himself denied having a real prototype at the house described in the novel. One of the sources of inspiration for him was the German novel Mayorat , in which the moral decay of a proud family is reflected in the decline of the decrepit castle of their ancestors.

Before writing the novel, Hawthorne did not leave a feeling of guilt for her fanatical ancestors who took an active part in the infamous witch hunt of 1692-1693. ^{[3] [4] The} themes of guilt and atonement raised by this work are also heard in Hawthorne's previous novel, The Scarlet Letter . Both novels were a great success both in America and in Europe, turning Hawthorne into the most famous American fiction writer of his time. While working on a book, he wrote to a friend ^[5] :

“Sometimes, in moments of fatigue, it seems to me that the whole thing is sheer absurdity from beginning to end. But the fact of the matter is that, creating a romantic novel, the writer rushes (or should rush) along the edge of a bottomless absurdity, and his art is to ride as close to the cliff as possible, but not to fall into the abyss. "

As in Hawthorne’s first novel , the House of Seven Gables has a minimum of characters, and “the main events that determine the fate of the heroes are taken outside the narrative” ^[5] . The central images of both novels in the title are interpreted by the author as multi-layer allegories , which allows Hawthorne to be considered a harbinger of literature of symbolism ^[6] .

Hawthorne's creative element was uncertainty ^[5] . He prefers not to clarify many key issues for the plot, leaving their permission to the discretion of the reader. For example, from the narrative, it remains unclear whether Clifford had a hand in the death of Judge Pinchen. Henry James taught this mastery of strategic silence. In many works of the latter, life slips over and over again, and a remarkable effort is required from the heroes to bring it into motion again ^[7] . The novel impressed James completely, but he was captivated by the characteristic “soft atmosphere of Indian summer”. According to James, the book leaves the impression of a “summer afternoon” held “under the shadow of elms in the town of New England” ^[8] .

G. F. Lovecraft, the father of modern horror literature , placed The House of the Seven Gables above other works of American literature created in New England ^[9] . The theme of the “damned old house” has become one of its defining ones.

In 1940, the Hollywood film adaptation of the novel was released, allowing for great liberties with respect to the literary source. For more information see the article The House on the Seven Gables (film) .

Vincent Price , who played the role of Clifford Pinchen in the film, a quarter century later played a major role in another film fantasy based on the novel, which appeared in the film almani Three Scary Stories (1963).

• The New York Times Review of The House of the Seven Gables (2000)