11 h 59 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 59 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the house you inherit holds a wrong that refuses to stay in the past?
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, a decaying New England mansion stands on land Colonel Pyncheon takes from Matthew Maule. Maule loses his life as an accused wizard, and his supposed curse shadows the family. Generations later, proud, impoverished Hepzibah Pyncheon opens a tiny shop to survive and care for her fragile brother, Clifford.
Their young cousin Phoebe brings warmth into the gloomy house, while Holgrave, a mysterious lodger, questions the past’s hold on the living. But Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon wants a family secret and treats his wishes as rights. As Hawthorne blends ordinary life with the half supernatural, the family faces a troubling question: must descendants keep bearing the wrongs of their ancestors?
What you’ll discover
- A house heavy with history Step beneath a mossy roof where poverty, pride, and old injustice share the rooms.
- Warmth against the shadows Meet Phoebe, whose cheerful presence offers a vivid contrast to the mansion’s gloom.
- A smile worth questioning Look past Judge Pyncheon’s public kindness to the cold demands beneath his smile.
- The burden of inheritance Explore whether guilt belongs only to the guilty or also shapes those who follow.
- Between realism and mystery Follow Hawthorne through daily struggles, unsettling legends, and the possibility of love and renewal.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy haunted houses with a real history, family secrets, sharp portraits of proud and gentle people, and a warm narrator.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A stolen plot burdens a family
- Hepzibah opens her door to work
- Phoebe makes room for ordinary happiness
- Clifford returns needing gentleness and beauty
- The Judge's smile conceals his cruelty
- Holgrave refuses to repeat an abuse
- An old threat forces a departure
- Daily life and legend share space
- Inheritance leaves room for human choice
Who’s who
- Hepzibah PyncheonA tall, nearsighted, proud old maid who opens a penny shop and devotes herself to her ruined brother.
- Phoebe PyncheonA cheerful country cousin of seventeen who brings order, song and warmth to the gloomy house.
- Clifford PyncheonHepzibah's gentle brother, a lover of beauty who returns home after thirty years of suffering.
- Judge Jaffrey PyncheonA wealthy, smiling public figure who resembles the founding Colonel and wants something from Clifford.
- HolgraveA young daguerreotype artist and reformer with many past careers, who lodges in one gable and studies the family.
- Uncle VennerA patched, kindly old odd-job man who gives plain advice and dreams of retiring to his farm.
- Colonel PyncheonThe stern Puritan founder who takes Maule's land, builds the mansion and is cursed for it.
- Matthew MauleThe hanged wizard whose dying words follow the Pyncheon family for generations.
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- Large print hardcover
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The House of the Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1851
A penniless lady opens a cent shop beneath a cursed roof while her ruined brother comes home.
Challenging5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would it be like to live in a house that remembers every wrong done beneath its roof? Nathaniel Hawthorne asks that question in The House of the Seven Gables, a romance of a cursed mansion in a New England town.
The House of the Seven Gables at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 40 min5 h 20 min fast, 7 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 95,400 words21 chapters
- Pages
- 294 pages444 in large print
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1851by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A house is built on a wizard's land
The book opens with a house that seems to carry a grudge. It is a weather-beaten wooden mansion with seven sharp gables and a huge clustered chimney, and a great elm shades its door.
The ground first belongs to Matthew Maule, who builds a hut beside a spring of sweet water. Colonel Pyncheon, a hard and powerful man, claims the same plot by a grant. Maule will not give way, and he is hanged as a wizard. From the scaffold he cries that God will give the Colonel blood to drink. The Colonel builds his great mansion on the very spot, and the spring turns brackish.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1851
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 50 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The House of the Seven Gables. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-of-the-seven-gables.
Hawthorne, N. (2026). The House of the Seven Gables. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-of-the-seven-gables (Original work published 1851)
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The House of the Seven Gables. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-of-the-seven-gables.
@book{hawthorne2026house,
author = {Hawthorne, Nathaniel},
title = {The House of the Seven Gables},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-of-the-seven-gables},
note = {First published 1851}
}
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What is The House of the Seven Gables about?
It follows the Pyncheon family in a New England town, as a curse from a hanged wizard and a stolen piece of land shape the lives of Hepzibah, her brother Clifford, their young cousin Phoebe, and a haughty Judge.
Is The House of the Seven Gables a true story?
No, it is a work of imagination. Hawthorne, who published it in 1851, calls it a romance, and he set it in a fictional street, though the setting draws on the New England region he knew.
Who is Maule and what is the curse?
Matthew Maule is a man hanged for witchcraft after Colonel Pyncheon claims his land. As he dies, he says God will give the Colonel blood to drink, and the family comes to treat that as a curse.
The author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
1804–1864 · American novelist
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short-story writer born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. He lived in Massachusetts and served as a United States consul in Liverpool, England. He wrote The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). He died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, in 1864.
More by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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