"The fathers have eaten
sour grapes And the children's teeth are set on
edge"
Ezekiel
18:2
Nathaniel
Hawthorne (1804 - 1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts, as Nathaniel Hathorne,
grandson of John Hathorne, one of the judges in the Salem Witchcraft trials.
His father, a sea captain, died when Nathaniel was four. Raised by a
doting all-female family, he loved to read and early on decided that he was not
fit for a traditional career. "I do not want to be a doctor and live by
men's diseases, nor a minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer to live by
their quarrels. So I don't see that there is anything left for me but to be an
author." He was a compatriot of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau and Herman Melville.
In this gothic novel
of greed and retribution, Hawthorne uses a curse to haunt the impressive House
of the Seven Gables. Colonel Pyncheon, who wrested the prime lot
from Matthew Maule, a poor man who was hanged for wizardry, was never to
live in the house he had built. Maule swore that God would give the
Pyncheons blood to drink. As greed continued to guide many of the
Pyncheons, they were cursed with premature, bloody deaths. The two who
avoided the curse of blood were old, weak and ineffectual. Only when a
distant cousin, Phoebe Pyncheon, brought light and hope into the house was the
curse lifted.
Possible Themes:
Transgenerational retribution | Consequences of
wrongdoing | Social class | Appearance vs. reality | Greed
| Guilt | Pride
Librarian talk . . . About Getting Started!
As you begin,
narrow your topic to a size that you can manage. Consider keywords
that will help you find the information you need. These can be names of people,
literary works, events, or broader identifying terms. Use these keywords
for locating information in the library catalog, electronic databases, and
on the internet.
Books
Librarian Talk . . .About Books!
Apply online for a
library card.
Use your card to:
1) Place a Hold on a book and have it sent to the library
closest to you
2) Access journal and reference databases from home,
and
3) Access e-Books from NetLibrary.
Online or e-Books are available at
NetLibrary.
Use your library card to log in.
Reference Books:
REF PN44 .M33 1976, vol. 5 Masterplots
Summary of the story, with a critical evaluation
REF PN3385 .N68, vol. 20 Novels for
Students
Summary of the story, character analyses, and an overview of literary
criticism.
REF PN41 .D5, vol. 223 Dictionary of Literary Biography
Biographical information about Hawthorne, including background on The
House of the Seven Gables
REF PS21 .M34 1991, vol. 3 Magill's Survey of American
Literature
Discussion of the theme of The House of the Seven Gables.
REF PN761 .N5 Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism
Literary criticism from many sources. Check the index volume.
These may be excerpted, but the full citation is given to allow you to
try to locate the original article.
Librarian Talk . . . About Finding
Journal and Newspaper Articles!
Electronic
databases are purchased by the libraries for your research use. To find articles
in newspapers and journals, letters, reference books, illustrations, photographs
and more, use your updated library card to login to the following databases.
If you find an interesting article that is not full-text, please give the
correct bibliographic information to our Reference Librarians and they
will see that you get the article. They will need full bibliographic information
- and your name and address. Send your phone number as well, so they can contact
you if they need to. There is some overlap of articles in the following databases.
However, we encourage you to use more than one. All are excellent sources
for this topic.
Search the library databases for scholarly articles on The
House of the Seven Gables. In Proquest and Academic Search Complete,
limit your search to Peer Reviewed.
Index to journals articles, some full text.
While similar to Academic Search Complete, it may have different articles.
Internet
Librarian Talk . . . About the Internet!
The Internet will be a wonderful source
of original documents. Browse the sites we have suggested below. Remember, you do want to find
reputable sites. Look at:
Accuracy - The information should be researched and
show proof that it has been.
Source - Who wrote the information? Look at the domain. .edu .gov. org .net are valid research sources.
Authority - What are the author's credentials? (Don't quote from another college freshman's paper.)
Coverage - Does the page have the information you need
for your research?
Objectivity - If a work is biased, use it - just make
sure your professor knows YOU know. And offer both sides of issues, where
applicable.
Lone Star College-Kingwood
Library
Librarian Talk . . . About Finding
Journal and Newspaper Articles!
