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Bezig met laden... The House of the Seven Gables (Norton Critical Editions) (origineel 1851; editie 2005)door Nathaniel Hawthorne (Auteur), Robert S. Levine (Redacteur)
Informatie over het werkThe House of the Seven Gables [Norton Critical Edition] door Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
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![]() Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. ![]() ![]() Ever since the violent death of their Puritan ancestor, the Pyncheon family has suffered under his legacy of pride and sin. It's always a bad sign when you spend most of a book wishing for a time machine so that you could travel back and punch the author in the mouth. Nathaniel Hawthorne tends to inspire this kind of reaction in me; The Scarlet Letter was not my fondest literary experience in high school. But that was when I was young and callow. I wanted to give Nathaniel a second chance in my advanced and mellow age. It was the wrong decision. The House of the Seven Gables is acidic and self-satisfied, but worst of all, it has no confidence in the acumen of its readers. It employs a mallet to ensure each precious point gets across. It is initially cute when the oddball Pyncheon family is revealed to own a set of oddball chickens that ironically match them in significant ways. It becomes less cute when the novel rushes in to say: The daguerrotypist once whispered [to] her that these marks betokened the oddities of the Pyncheon family, and that the chicken itself was a symbol of the life of the old house, embodying its interpretation, likewise, although an unintelligible one, as such clues generally are. [155] These are the moments where you want to shake the author and say, "Yes, Nathaniel, we got it the first time." And then there are moments like this: "Shall we never, never get rid of this Past?" cried he, keeping up the earnest tone of his preceding conversation. "It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body! In fact, the case is just as if a young giant were compelled to waste all his strength in carrying about the corpse of the old giant, his grandfather, who died a long while ago, and only needs to be decently buried. ..." [187] Yeah! The past is just like that! But even though I've lost count of the times I've hoisted aloft my giant dead grandfather, the poetic comparison would have never occurred to me without the genius of Nathaniel. I hope my future self is powering up that time machine right now! I wasn't expecting to enjoy Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The House of the Seven Gables," but I really did. It was a good gothic story, with the house itself almost painted as a character, that moved along at a nice pace. The story focuses on the owners of the seven-gabled homes, the Pyncheon family, which has a rather sordid history associated with the property. As a result, they suffer from a curse of sorts with the bulk of their inheritance -- a deed showing their ownership of a large tract of Maine woodland -- has been lost to time. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the story and found this fairly compelling. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)
It is accompanied by thorough explanatory annotations and an insightful introduction to the novel and antebellum culture by Robert S. Levine. "Contexts" brings together a generous selection of primary materials intended to provide readers with background on the novel's central themes. Historical documents include accounts of Salem's history by Thomas Maule, Robert Calef, Joseph B. Felt, and Charles W. Upham, which Hawthorne drew on for The House of the Seven Gables.? The importance of the house in antebellum America--as a manifestation of the body, a site of genealogical history, and a symbol of the republic's middle class--is explored through the diverse writings of William Andrus Alcott, Edgar Allan Poe, and J. H. Agnew, among others.? The impact of technological developments on the novel, especially of daguerreotypy, is considered through the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Gustave de Beaumont, and Alexis de Tocqueville, among others.? Also included are two of Hawthorne's literary sketches--"Alice Doane's Appeal" and "The Old Apple Dealer"--that demonstrate the continuity of Hawthorne's style, from his earlier periodical writing to his later career as a novelist. "Criticism" provides a comprehensive overview of the critical commentary on the novel from its publication to the present.? Among the twenty-seven critics represented are Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, Nina Baym, Eric Sundquist, Richard H. Millington, Alan Trachtenberg, Amy Schrager Lang, and Christopher Castiglia. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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![]() GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.3Literature English (North America) American fiction Middle 19th Century 1830-1861LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:![]()
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