I decided it would be a good idea to read classics I wasn't forced to read in school...it just seemed like a good idea at the time. I knew I wouldn't be able to read a bunch of them in a row so I thought every 4th book would be a classic. The first one I picked was the slim volume The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It sounded like it would be a good spooky book, appropriate for October and Halloween.
I just finished it and that was more because I was too busy to read. That's unfortunate because you really have to pay attention with some of these stories because the language is a little hard to follow. It's a great story but because I wasn't reading consistently there were things going on that I didn't understand.
The house is haunted....maybe. Way back when, a grasping Pyncheon elder decided he wanted the land a certain poor fellow named Maule already owned. Pyncheon was a justice and so all he had to do to seize the land was to accuse Maule of witchcraft. Oh...the time period? Well, it was published in 1851 if that gives you a starter and this originally judge lived aorund the time of the Salem witch trials. Anyway, he seizes the land and builds a house with seven gables right on top of the place Maule's home used to stand. Now, is that asking for a haunted house or what? Sure enough, bad things happen to the Pyncheon family beginning with the judge--he's found dead by a young relative.
Hawthorne had a hilarious sense of humor. I loved his descriptions of the current resident of the house, poor old Hepzibah. She is a sight to run from with a perpetual scowl on her face. She finds herself in the embarrassing circumstance of having to open a shop to earn money because the family's now broke. As she tries to set up shop and serve customers, I had to laugh at some of the things she did. Poor old thing! Fortunately for her, a young relative arrives from the country, Phoebe. Phoebe's got much better people skills and the shop does much better.
But wait! Now there's a new character, Clifford--and this is one of the pieces I missed. I got the fact that he is the rather simple minded brother of Hepzibah and that she wanted to protect him. I missed the fact that he'd been in prison--I assumed he was in a mental institution considering the way he was behaving. Anyway, Clifford takes quite a liking to Phoebe and I suppose the three of them would have limped along in their dysfunctional manner if not for a boarder at the house.
Hargraves is a young photographer (I mean, dageuerretypist) who one day decides to fill Phoebe in on some of the ickier ghost stories surrounding the house, specifically--the son of Matthew Maule getting revenge on the Pyncheon family by bringing Alice Pyncheon under his spell and using her for datardly deeds. Phoebe decides it's time to go home.
There is another relative in all this, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon--described on the back cover as "the devil incarnate". I am not sure why. He torments his cousins, Hepzibah and Clifford, that's about all I got out of it. He threatens to put Clifford in an insane asylum and the next thing you know, Clifford's standing over the dead body. Hmmmmm....so does this mean Clifford killed Jaffrey or did one of the already dead and cursed Pyncheons--or even Maule--do it?
At any rate, no one blames Clifford and he and his sister are able to leave the miserable house and live out their lives in the country.
Okay.
It's a classic--not as suspenseful as I might have liked but I think Hawthorne brought out some sore points about social classes in a way to make you think--i.e. the fact that rich Judge Pyncheon was so easily able to wrest Maule's property away. I also enjoyed the humor and I'm glad that Hepzibah and Clifford got away from that place!
Because it's taking me so long to read and finish books, I think I'll move on to Christmas themed books now.
Posted by Cassie at November 12, 2006 05:27 PM | TrackBack