A review by virginiacjacobs
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

4.0

After suffering through The Scarlet Letter in high school (or more accurately, suffering through The Custom House, the 3,798-page introduction to The Scarlet Letter, that is all about shipping taxes in Salem in the 1700's or something like that, maybe?) I decided to NEVER read Nathaniel Hawthorne again. And then I took a trip to Salem and visited the actual house of the seven gables and heard about Uncle Venner and Clifford, and thought, maybe I'll give this a try. I did not realize how funny Hawthorne was, with lines like "the sombre dignity of an inherited curse," and "The Judge, had he done nothing else, would have achieved wonders with his knife and fork." Even making fun of himself, saying, "He now observed that a certain remarkable drowsiness (wholly unlike that with which the reader possibly feels himself affected)"

Because of the style of writing...long passages of philosophizing interspersed with action, this is not a fast read, but it is worthwhile.