Jesse’s Reviews > The House of the Seven Gables > Status Update
Jesse
is on page 50 of 326
On the one hand, Hawthorne sure loves to talk. On the other, I love that this story has the room to breathe. The Scarlet Letter moved in play-like acts and broad expository swathes. We are fifty pages in and just now getting to our first character, the elderly Hepzibah, working the 1850s version of a dollar store out of her family’s mansion (because of a 30 page history and a 10 page character sketch).
— Feb 11, 2026 03:18PM
Like flag
Jesse’s Previous Updates
Jesse
is on page 200 of 326
Blah blah Clifford, blah blah Holgrave. Holgrave’s almost maniacal sentiments regarding the past—a renunciation of ancestry—has a certain poeticism during his “Dead Man” soliloquy. Mostly, it’s leading up to his personal narrative regarding the fate of Alice Pyncheon. I’m not sure but I suspect that Holgrave is one of Maule’s ancestors, whether he knows it or not.
— 55 minutes ago
Jesse
is on page 150 of 326
Fifty pages and we introduce one new character (even if we spend a bit more time with the obvious villain): Clifford, Hepzibah’s brother, once an artistic and dainty youth but now an infirm old man. this book is fine when it is depicting Hawthorne’s sort of melodramatic scenes but the broad swathes of generalized descriptions of the life of the household go ON and ON
— 3 hours, 41 min ago
Jesse
is on page 100 of 326
At this point this story is very low key. The enchanting Phoebe has arrived from the country and is enriching her aunt’s life by running the shop for her and cooking and other such things that the pseudo-noblewoman could not hope to succeed at. Hawthorne demonstrates a belief in the Puritan work ethic, tempered by the idea that such work must grow out of the worker rather than be coerced.
— 10 hours, 39 min ago
Comments Showing 1-1 of 1 (1 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Jesse
(new)
-
added it
Feb 11, 2026 03:20PM
The history is necessary because Hawthorne was occupied with history forming a gateway to the present and thus the future. He really did believe in the sins of the fathers, and his guilt at his ancestor’s judging at the Salem witch trials obviously haunted him.
reply
|
flag
