The House of the Seven Gables

By: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrated by: Anthony Heald

In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family of Salem.

The greed and haughty pride of the Pyncheon family through the generations is mirrored in the gloomy decay of their seven-gabled mansion, where the family's enfeebled and impoverished relations now live. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family's salvation - or its downfall.

A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, Hawthorne's Gothic romance is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work that Henry James declared "the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel".

Public Domain (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

great narration!

it's an American classic with a lot of old writing. but the narration really worked! his inflection and character voice's really helped keep the story flowing and helped me enjoy this story that much more.

Some editing errors

The recording is fine, but the editor missed some retakes. There are a few instances of repeated lines.

A bit slow in places, but a good story

A bit slow in places but a good story. If there is an abridged version, I am sure nothing would be missed.

Excellent reading of this story

The narrator is quite skilled in bringing out the irony and drama in Hawthorne’s story and the performance combined with the text leads to some very heightened moments, especially toward the end. Recommend this performance.

Don’t worry it’s redemptive

I was concerned that this book would settle in the dark and leave me hanging for redemptive quality at the end , but it didn’t. It was definitely a dark read but peppered with light.