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Cover of The House of Seven Gables Readalong by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The House of Seven Gables Readalong

  • 324 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 1851
  • 471 editions
  • Free to read

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1 About this book

In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family's salvation -- or its downfall.

Hawthorne called The House of the Seven Gables "a romance," and freely bestowed upon it many fascinating gothic touches. A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, the novel is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work that Henry James declared "the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel."

Good for readers who want: fantasy, a classic, ghosts, and a book they can read free online.

  • Fantasy
  • Classics
  • Domestic fiction
  • Historical fiction
  • Haunted houses
  • Ghosts
  • False imprisonment
  • Paranormal fiction

2 Read it free, right here

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Read it on the Internet Archive

3 About Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804–1864

Nathaniel Hawthorne (né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with the town. Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College in 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and graduated in 1825.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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