Reviews

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

lalawoman416's review against another edition

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4.0

Love the old Gothic books. Old homes, blood feuds, possible ghosts. They sure knew how to write them.

robbstarks's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

3.0

“a dead man sits on all our judgment seats; and living judges do but search out and repeat his decisions. we read in dead men's books! we laugh a dead men's jokes, and cry at dead men's pathos!”

justmandir's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

jeanstromberg's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

loper100's review against another edition

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challenging funny mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Obviously a landmark in gothic literature, at times it feels confused and unpolished with the only truly solid aspect of the novel being the textured setting of the house itself. 

thatreadingwitch's review against another edition

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3.0

I read this as a nostalgia spring season read and it did not disappoint. My Husband and I went to visit this place physically and I will say that the way the house was described in the book does not give it justice as going there personally to see it and hearing the history in more up to time terms.

fairyprincessaphrodite's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

coilrecoil's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

jelissak's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

musicsaves's review against another edition

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3.0

"Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst." This opening line to Hawthorne's "romance" is an apt metaphor for the book itself. Rusty, acute peaks, various points on the compass, clustered...
Can't say that I really enjoyed this one as much as I had hoped and was very close to giving up when hitting the 50th page (that 50-page-rule, ya know), but I sallied on and just, well....meh...