The House of the Seven Gables | Nathaniel Hawthorne
In the following excerpt, Idol discusses The House of the Seven Gables as an example of Hawthorne’s “theory of romance composition.”
. . . Although Hawthorne’s introductory essay to The Scarlet Letter was written after he completed the romance, besides being an engaging personal essay and a consummate display of his talents as humorist and satirist, it has two important links to the romance. One link is that Hawthorne pointedly insists upon his Puritan heritage, beginning with the “bearded, sablecloaked, and steeple-crowned progenitor” William Hathorne, “soldier, legislator, judge,” who was “likewise a better persecutor,” remembered for his severity toward a woman of the Quaker sect and continuing...
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