THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, A Romance

Boston: Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1851. First Edition, one of 1000 copies of the September (4th) issue. 8vo, in the original Ticknor’s style A ribbed brown cloth, decorated in blind on both covers, the spine lettered in gilt with bands in blind, variant E, no priority assigned. vi, [3], 10 - 344 pp. A very attractive and well preserved copy, expertly restored at the spine but retaining nearly all of the original gilt decorated cloth, the text is very clean and fresh for the title, only a few incidents of foxing and with very little evidence of use. One of Hawthorne's most popular books and A central classics of nineteenth-century American literature, AND ARGUABLY THE QUINTESSENTIAL OF AMERICAN GOTHIC. THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES is a pillar of American Renaissance literature, and was a major influence on later authors of both the horror and mystery genres, in fact it continues to be influential even today.
Written during the most lucrative period of the author's career, the novel centers on a New England family and their ancestral home. The setting was inspired by the Turner-Inglersoll Mansion, a dark and rather moody gabled house in Salem, Massachusetts which still stands today and offers very popular tours. While set in Hawthorne's time, the novel searches history and reaches back to discern the life that occurred through the years. The house, in Hawthorne's tales is presented as a gloomy mansion, haunted since its construction by unscrupulous dealings, accusations of witchcraft, and death.
The House of the Seven Gables was released in April of 1851. Two printings were issued in the first month, a third in May, and a fourth in September 1851; totaling 6,710 copies in its first year. Hawthorne earned 15% in royalties from the $1.00 cover price. After its publication, Hawthorne said, "It sold finely and seems to have pleased a good many people." His friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called it "a weird, wild book" and it met with extreme popularity not only in America, but also in England where it was viewed as kin to Jane Eyre. British critic Henry Chorley noted that, with THE SCARLET LETTER and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, "few will dispute [Hawthorne's] claim to rank amongst the most original and complete novelists that have appeared in modern times.