The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

“Greedy Colonel Pyncheon builds his mansion on ill-gotten ground, setting the stage for generations of suffering. Years later, a country cousin, Phoebe,  attempts to reverse the tide of misfortunes surrounding the house, and tries to help the old hermit Hepzibah and her half-mad brother, Clifford, before they fall into their own decay.”

This ought not to be a book. It ought to be a short story. There is so much unnecessary description and long philosophizing passages. I skipped entire chapters of nonsense and silly imaginings that had nothing whatever to do with the plot. There is very little dialogue at all. I estimate that about 3% of this book is dialogue. Not nearly enough dialogue.

I found most of the book to be gloomy, but not too creepy until Continue reading →