The House of the Seven Gables [Paperback]

Following on the heels of The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables was intended to be a far sunnier book than its predecessor and one that would illustrate the folly of tumbling down on posterity an avalanche of ill-gotten gold, or real estate. Many critics have faulted the novel for its explaining away of hereditary guilt or its contradictory denial of it. Denis Donoghue instructs the reader in a fresh appreciation of the novel.

The John Harvard Library edition reproduces the authoritative text of The House of the Seven Gables in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This novel was intended to be far sunnier than The Scarlet Letter and to illustrate the folly of tumbling down on posterity an avalanche of ill-gotten gold, or real estate. Critics have faulted the book for explaining away hereditary guilt or for a contradictory denial of it, but Denis Donoghue offers fresh appreciation of the novel.