The House of the Seven Gables · Chapters

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Chapter companions for The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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Chapter 1
The House of the Seven Gables
This opening chapter introduces the ancient Pyncheon house with its seven gables, tracing its history back to Colonel Pyncheon who built it on land taken from Matthew Maule. The narrative describes the house's gloomy appearance and the lingering curse pronounced by Maule at his execution. It sets the stage for the family's inherited guilt and the decay of their once-proud lineage.
Chapter 2
The Old Pyncheon Family
The chapter introduces the House of the Seven Gables, its history, and the Pyncheon family lineage, tracing back to Colonel Pyncheon's acquisition of the land from Matthew Maule. It explores the curse placed by Maule, the family's inherited guilt, and the recent tragedy of a murder within the family, leading to the imprisonment of a young Pyncheon. The current heir, Judge Pyncheon, is presented as a respectable figure, though the shadow of the past looms over the family.
Chapter 3
II: The Little Shopwindow
Hepzibah Pyncheon, after a sleepless night and a morning of anxious prayer and preparation, opens a cent-shop in the basement of the House of the Seven Gables, overcoming her deep-seated pride and fear as she steps into a new, humiliating role to earn a living.
Chapter 4
III: The First Customer
Hepzibah Pyncheon, overwhelmed by anxiety and despair on the morning she opens her cent-shop, is visited by Holgrave, the daguerreotypist, who offers encouragement and becomes her first customer. After he leaves, her spirits sink again as she contemplates the impossibility of success against the grand shops of the city. Her first actual customer is a young boy, Ned Higgins, who buys a gingerbread Jim Crow; Hepzibah, flustered by her own gentility, gives it to him for free, only for him to return moments later.
Chapter 5
IV: A Day Behind the Counter
Hepzibah Pyncheon struggles through her first day as a shopkeeper, haunted by the legacy of her ancestor Colonel Pyncheon and the looming presence of her cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. She retreats into fantasies of inherited wealth and receives advice from Uncle Venner, while her distracted demeanor frustrates customers.

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The House of the Seven Gables

The Old Pyncheon Family

II: The Little Shopwindow

III: The First Customer

IV: A Day Behind the Counter