Hawthorne, Nathaniel | First edition of Hawthorne's famed gothic novel

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

The House of Seven Gables, a Romance. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1851

8vo. Publisher's 4-page advertisement at front dated March 1851 (BAL "A" issue); some scattered foxing and staining. Publisher's brown T-cloth, covers decoratively ruled and tooled in blind, spine gilt-lettered, yellow coated endpapers; extremities rubbed with some fraying and short splits to head and tail of spine, a few instances of staining, slightly cocked. Half morocco slipcase.

First edition, first printing.

“Shall we never never get rid of this Past? ... It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body.”

Hawthorne's famed gothic novel, which influenced H.P. Lovecraft's later stories of a cursed New England, is a weaving tale of a declining family trapped amid the haunted architecture of their dilapidated home.

REFERENCE

BAL 7604; Barron, Horror Literature 2-38; Clark A17.1.a

PROVENANCE

Lizzie March Newton (signature to front pastedown)