Nathaniel Hawthorne

Efter en strid mellem oberst Pyncheon og tømreren Matthew Maule bliver obersten fundet død i sit værelse og kort efter bliver Maule henrettet som troldkarl. Siden da har familien Pyncheon været forbandet og den gamle frk. Hepzibah sidder flere år efter alene i familiens store gamle hus. Folk er bange for hende, og da hun beslutter sig for at åbne en skillingsbutik, er folk mere nysgerrige end begejstrede. Så dukker den unge og ubekymrede Phoebe op, og tingene tager en drejning for Hepzibah, men under overfladen lurer forbandelsen stadig. Da Hepzibahs bror kommer hjem, begynder dommer Pyncheon også at vise sit ansigt i huset igen, og gamle hemmeligheder dukker op til overfladen. Hemmeligheder om forbandelser, hekseri, falske anklager og hemmeligheder om mord. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) er en af den amerikanske litteraturs ’founding fathers’, læst og elsket af samtidige forfattere som Edgar Allan Poe og Herman Melville og kanoniseret af eftertiden side om side med disse. Hans værker behandler ofte begreber som menneskets synd og ondskab, og man mærker også tydeligt det sort-romantiske i ‘Huset med de syv gavle’, der ligesom de fleste af hans historier udspiller sig i Massachusetts, hvor Hawthorne selv voksede op.

The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story. David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

"We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep." --- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is an 1850 work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered to be his best work. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. Critical response On its publication, critic Evert Augustus Duyckinck, a friend of Hawthorne's, said he preferred the author's Washington Irving-like tales. Another friend, critic Edwin Percy Whipple, objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" with dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, too painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them". Most literary critics praised the book but religious leaders took issue with the novel's subject matter. Orestes Brownson complained that Hawthorne did not understand Christianity, confession, and remorse. A review in The Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register concluded the author "perpetrates bad morals." On the other hand, 20th-century writer D. H. Lawrence said that there could not be a more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter. Henry James once said of the novel, "It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things---an indefinable purity and lightness of conception... One can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art." The book's immediate and lasting success are due to the way it addresses spiritual and moral issues from a uniquely American standpoint. In 1850, adultery was an extremely risqu subject, but because Hawthorne had the support of the New England literary establishment, it passed easily into the realm of appropriate reading. It has been said that this work represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius, dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.

A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys is a children's book written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne in which he rewrites myths from Greek mythology. They are all stories within a story, the frame story being that a Williams College student, Eustace Bright, is telling these tales to a group of children at Tanglewood, an estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, where Hawthorne lived for a time. A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys covers the myths of, The Gorgon's Head, The Golden Touch, The Paradise of Children, The Three Golden Apples, The Miraculous Pitcher, and The Chim ra.

"Legends of the Province House" from Nathaniel Hawthorne. American novelist and short story writer (1804-1864).