Status Updates From The House of the Seven Gables

I have to admire Hawthorne’s commitment. That sack of shit, Judge Pyncheon, is a corpse rotting in the House and he devotes an entire chapter to roasting him as if he is sarcastically admonishing him for not keeping with his schedule, then there’s the chapter of horror where he juxtaposes the dead Judge with life moving along as usual, at first unaware of the fact that there is anything amiss in the mansion.

rarely have I read a book where so little happens within so many pages. The end of Alice’s story is pretty good. The Maule feud turns into a blood feud with guilty parties on both sides. If there was any doubt as to Holgrave’s ancestry, it’s clear when he nearly hypnotized Phoebe. I am surprised, though, that the villain bites the dust at this point in the novel. Well, the obvious villain.