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3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
While I liked the book at the beginning, it got to be a slog toward the end. Hawthorne's formal style does not help matters much - extending could be said in a single short sentence into a chapter. While there are some good parts in the story, there's lots of story in between the good parts. I read it, but don't see myself revisiting the tale.
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It feels very weird to rate and review a classic, but here we are.
I really loved The House of the Seven Gables! I haven’t read a classic in a long time, so I did struggle with paying attention to the prose. On the flip side of that coin, I was a little bit surprised by the humor in the narration. I laughed out loud several times, which was not what I expected to happen with an old classic like this for some reason.
The ending is one part wrapped up with a tidy bow and one part left frustratingly open. The resolution of a few things was great and pretty, but I wish there were just a few more answers.
I liked all of the characters, for the most part, and the idea of appearance vs personality is very interesting to look out for.
I was very grateful for the notes/glossary of terms at the back of the book, there were references and words I wouldn’t have understood correctly without it!
I really loved The House of the Seven Gables! I haven’t read a classic in a long time, so I did struggle with paying attention to the prose. On the flip side of that coin, I was a little bit surprised by the humor in the narration. I laughed out loud several times, which was not what I expected to happen with an old classic like this for some reason.
The ending is one part wrapped up with a tidy bow and one part left frustratingly open. The resolution of a few things was great and pretty, but I wish there were just a few more answers.
I liked all of the characters, for the most part, and the idea of appearance vs personality is very interesting to look out for.
I was very grateful for the notes/glossary of terms at the back of the book, there were references and words I wouldn’t have understood correctly without it!
Leave it to a reader like me to love a book not well received by others. The House of the Seven Gables is truly a fable as to how a person, or many persons, live or exist or psychologically or physiologically die with the past. Hawthorne has split himself up among the main four characters and for me, knowing my literary history, is always the best writing that shows a writer's relationship with themselves. It really is a fable about living with or without the past, how to exist alongside something ugly or morally ambivalent and chapter 28 is truly TRULY a masterpiece of the Gothic.
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
My second book in a row published in 1851 (Moby Dick being the other). I definitely liked this one better. Hawthorne composes every sentence with emotion and detail. The story is downright spooky. When one makes a poor or unwise or evil decision, it can affect generations that follow. I believe that.
dark
slow-paced
If I couldn’t tell that some of characters weren’t ghosts until the end, I fear Hawthorne does way too much with his descriptions. However, I do like the way he writes. The narrator during the Judge Pyncheon chapter was quite enjoyable.
Love the old Gothic books. Old homes, blood feuds, possible ghosts. They sure knew how to write them.