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3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
While a classic and while I enjoyed this, I did not need four pages of minute details about the chickens or any number of other things that weren’t pertinent to the story… (?)
3.5 I bought this book in the gift shop at the HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES in Salem. It has taken me awhile to pick it up but I'm glad I finally did. My version has photographs of the interior of the house sprinkled throughout and it was fun to jog my memories of the tour. I enjoyed this much more than The Scarlett Letter. But Mr. Hawthorne was a very wordy author, so it does drudge on here and there. There is a cool chapter regarding a character who is deceased that I thought was really interesting and seemed to be illustrating that no matter how busy we are, we all die at some point...death doesn't wait for us to be done, so keep your relationships healthy.
Had never read this before, but I liked it for the most part. It was slightly gothic, slightly romantic, but truth be told, not a lot actually happened in the story. Hawthorne is a beautiful writer (although it was a bit hard to understand his century old lexicon) so I enjoyed reading his words.
The prose was beautiful. The ghosty bits were fun. List of praises ends there.
Sexism and racism were handled so matter-of-factly that I quickly felt resentment for the story. I understand that it was a different time, but that argument won't fly with me in this case when the opening speaks so beautifully of generational violence and of people inheriting the sins of the past. It threatens to really go somewhere substantive but, from my viewpoint, never manages to get there.
The irony that the opening passages creates when juxtaposed to the narrative itself is, to me, a head scratching let down. Settler colonialism and slavery play a role in the story, but are never so much as problematized let alone being mentioned as major sources of generational trauma and inherited debt discussed in the opening. That suffering, isn't even portrayed as such in this novel. It just felt so tone deaf and that, to me, overpowered anything else Hawthorne accomplished in this book. I can't recommend.
Sexism and racism were handled so matter-of-factly that I quickly felt resentment for the story. I understand that it was a different time, but that argument won't fly with me in this case when the opening speaks so beautifully of generational violence and of people inheriting the sins of the past. It threatens to really go somewhere substantive but, from my viewpoint, never manages to get there.
The irony that the opening passages creates when juxtaposed to the narrative itself is, to me, a head scratching let down. Settler colonialism and slavery play a role in the story, but are never so much as problematized let alone being mentioned as major sources of generational trauma and inherited debt discussed in the opening. That suffering, isn't even portrayed as such in this novel. It just felt so tone deaf and that, to me, overpowered anything else Hawthorne accomplished in this book. I can't recommend.
So much unnecessary description. I love detail but did I need a string of adjectives to describe a shop bell or a chicken (sorry chanticleer, it's not your fault.)
NoveList Appeal Terms:
Genre: Books to movies; Classics; Family sagas; Gothic fiction
Character: Brooding; Flawed
Storyline: Intricately plotted
Pace: Leisurely paced
Tone: Atmospheric
Writing Style: Descriptive; Richly detailed
Genre: Books to movies; Classics; Family sagas; Gothic fiction
Character: Brooding; Flawed
Storyline: Intricately plotted
Pace: Leisurely paced
Tone: Atmospheric
Writing Style: Descriptive; Richly detailed
no great moral to this tale. an enjoyable read, slow old-school pace with a quick and rapid wrap-up. much better than i expected from my tortured memories of reading a scarlet letter in high school.
I bought this book as a souvenir from seeing the actual house. That visit made it much more interesting to me to read since I could picture all of this happening in the actual house I visited in Salem, Massachusetts.
Atmosphere is the focus of this book. Hawthorne fills 75% of the pages with flowing and full descriptions of the important people, places and things surrounding the house of the seven gables. It is certainly not a horror or suspense story such as we think of them today, but it does mix the natural and supernatural, and it has moments of suspense that are heightened by the wonderful picture of the scene that Hawthorne has painted. While I understand the frustration of some reviewers by the style of this book, I think that if one starts it with what I have stated in mind, it will be a very enjoyable read!