Dark Romantics

All books from the dark romantics literary period

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

19 Dec 2011

12 Comments

After reading The Blithedale Romance, I was feeling pretty gung-ho about Hawthorne so I decided to jump into my 2012 To be Read list early and read The House of the Seven Gables next. I finished the book over a week ago and it did not leave me running to the computer to write a review. In fact, the Seven Gables drained the Hawthorne love right out of me.

It was just so boring!!

Phew, I feel better now. You might know from reading the blog that I rarely find a book truly boring. I might struggle with it at the beginning but by the end I almost always find something to love. But not so with The House of the Seven Gables. I don’t even know for sure what it was that held me back from really enjoying it. Maybe my brain was just too busy with other things; Christmas planning, stress over having a new roof built, being sick. I don’t know though, often a book is the perfect escape for these kinds of mental drags. I just could not immerse myself in the Seven Gables.

The House of the Seven Gables is about the last remaining members of the Pyncheon family. Scowling spinster sister Hepzibah, loony old innocent brother Clifford, and angelic country cousin Phoebe. Together with an unrelated lodger, transcendentalist Holgrave, they spend their days and nights holed up in the old Pyncheon house. Part of the reason that I lacked interest in this book was because the entire story is set in the house, or for variety, in the garden out back. You catch on quickly to the metaphor of the seven gables house as an embodiment of the past, sin, greed, and a wickedness being passed down, or pulling down, one generation to the next. The garden on the other hand is your typical Eden. The transcendentalist belief in the purity of hard work and nature is clear here as Phoebe and Holgrave weed the old overgrown garden and create a paradise in the midst of looming house of sin.

Like The Scarlett Letter, which I was also not a huge fan of, the theme in the Seven Gables is so narrowly focused that I think a short story would have sufficed. For me there was just not enough variety to fill an entire novel. The Seven Gables was not particularly gothic, although it is said to be. It was not funny, even though Hawthorne tries very hard to make you see the humor in Hepzibah (I just felt sad for her). Nor was there a twist in the narration or in any of the characters that made your mind keep turning after you set the book down. The very end of the book left some questions but not enough to save the other 275 pages.

Like all of Hawthorne’s work, you could see the seven gables as his transcendentalist vs anti-transcendentalist struggles. He seems to want to believe in the movement and the good that can come out of it. But like Melville, Hawthorne is too much of a realist. The guilt of Calvinism and Puritanism is too ingrained in his soul for him to believe in the natural goodness of man. The Seven Gables hints at this struggle but I found the idea more stimulating in other Hawthorne stories.

So while I didn’t despise The House of the Seven Gables, I just never got over a Meh and a Shrug.

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Dark Romantics, Finis, analysis and reviews, Transcendentalism Tags: , , ,

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

28 Nov 2011

12 Comments


The Blithedale Romance is a lesser known, short novel by Hawthorne but it is my favorite of his so far. I downloaded the book from Project Gutenberg after reading that it was about a Transcendentalist commune. The story takes place at Blithedale Farm, an experiment in utopian society. A group of intellectuals decide to leave the city in exchange for ‘live off the land equality’. It is up to farmer Silas Forester to teach these soft philosophers and poets how to plant a crop and milk a cow. Silas’s cynicism towards these utopians and his straight forward attitude in comparison is very funny.

Blithedale Farm is based on Hawthorne’s real life experience at Brook Farm in 1841, he would write the book 10 years later. Based on the info about the story online, I was expecting the utopian farm and transcendentalists ideals to be front and center in the Blithedale Romance. But I found that the farm quickly slides into the background and Transcendentalism is embodied in the characters more than it is discussed by them. We are not told much about the other people living on the farm or what any of them hope to achieve through it. Blithedale becomes merely a backdrop for the drama and tragedy of the four central characters.

The Blithedale Romance is told through a first person narrator, mediocre poet Miles Coverdale. Hawthorne exploits this limited view point and makes the reader very aware that the entire story is ‘constructed’ by Miles with the limited events he sees first hand and a lot of poetic flourish added. You never really know how much Miles is twisting events and personalities. This was really fascinating to me and makes want to read the book all over again.

Initially while reading the book I was quick to accept Mile’s narration as reliable. He is an amusing, sarcastic, likable character. As the story went on though, I became more and more skeptical about Miles. By the end of the book I wondered if the pivotal scenes in the story actually happened (especially since they seemed so out of character) or if Miles was just on a Shakespeare kick and wanted to add some poetic drama.

Miles as the narrator of this story, is like meeting someone in real life that you thought was clever and amusing. But after said person walks away and you think about them a bit, you realize they are actually kind of an asshole lol.

Miles prides himself on being merely an observer, an extremely nosy one at that. Although I have limited knowledge about transcendentalism, Miles seems to be Emerson’s Transcendentalists essay come to life. In his essay, Emerson criticizes transcendentalist for their tendency to be isolationists, unproductive, and passive. Emerson encourages them to take action and interact with society otherwise their gifts will be wasted.

In The Blithedale Romance, Miles views events from a very isolated perspective. He is constantly spying on people (through hotel windows, while up a tree, etc) and is even content to live out the rest of his life alone and useless, unless..

were there any cause, in this whole chaos of human struggle, worth a sane man’s dying for, and which  my death would benefit, then -provided, however, the effort did not involve unreasonable amount of trouble-methinks I might be bold to offer up my life

Miles does try his hand at productivity. Like the rest of the farm residents, he works out in the fields at Blithedale but he quickly realizes that a long day of working your ass off leaves little energy for poetry and philosophizing. Although he admires the muscle he builds via Emerson’s self-reliance, Miles never seems altered or improved by the spirituality of nature and hard work.

Miles is an observer of a love triangle between his friends, Hollingsworth, Zenobia, and Priscilla. He spies on and speculates endlessly about them but  he never takes action. Miles is so passive in the events that unfold that the blame for the ensuing tragedy could be laid on his head.

I have not even scratched the surface of this book. I have not even talked about how amazing Zenobia is! Or how I wondered if Hawthorne is a forwarding thinking man in support of women’s rights or if he puts Zenobia in her place because he is actually a conservative pig.  I am tempted to talk forever about this book but I think, I will leave off telling you any more of the plot in hopes that you will read it and enjoy the story as much as I did.

My final thought on The Blithedale Romance is that I found all the characters very interesting. They were certainly Types and not multi-faceted people but that is because they were only what Miles decided to present them as. Even as a Type the characters give you much to think about and I wonder how far the individual characters tie into Emerson’s essays. Was Hawthorne presenting each character as an emulation of specific ideals or were they a more general statement about Transcendentalism? Certainly Hollingsworth is Hawthorne’s caution against philosophers who love their ideal society more than they love the Ones with in it.

I was beginning to lose the sense of what kind of a world it was, among the innumerable schemes of what it might or ought to be.

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Dark Romantics, Finis, analysis and reviews, Transcendentalism Tags: , , ,

Understanding Moby Dick and Herman Melville

19 Nov 2011

6 Comments

Intro to this topic:
Whenever I read a classic novel I like to scour the internet for information on it and the author. Normally I read some biographical information on the author first. It helps me to place the book in it’s appropriate time and place. While reading the story I usually avoid reading too much additional information about it because I am afraid of spoilers. But after I finish and have thought about it a bit, I like to look up other people’s thoughts on the story and get some starting points on themes and symbolism.
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before now to include this info here on the blog. It seems a natural enough addition lol, so I will start.
The following is some of the information out on the web about Herman Melville and Moby Dick that I found interesting and useful for understanding the novel.
As elsewhere on the blog, I will try to avoid posting any End spoilers in these “Understanding” type posts.
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Understanding and interpreting Moby Dick and Herman Melville

Re: Moby Dick

“The book’s rich texture lends itself to various interpretations. It can be read superficially as a melodramatic adventure or for the precise descriptions of the technology of whaling and the natural history of whales interspersed in the narrative. Yet virtually every detail of the book – plot line, accounts of the capture of whales and the processing of blubber, seamen’s legends and lore, natural history, characterization, and descriptions of nautical gear – is a vehicle for a deliberately inconclusive, many-sided debate on the nature of the human condition.”

“One of Melville’s favorite devices is to argue a point effectively in one chapter, undercut it with an equally effective and opposite argument in the next, then to present other arguments at various points between. A related technique is his use of traditional systems for ordering knowledge – ostensibly to clarify, present information, or advance an argument – but actually as a means of demonstrating the limitations of the system and, by extension, the impossibility of mere earthly beings coming up with categorical answers to any question whatsoever. Ishmael’s ability to exist within this limitation makes possible his salvation. Ahab’s inability to do so destroys him.”

“Disheartened by debts, ill health, and the failure to win an audience, Melville became absorbed in mysticism. He was unable to accept the optimism of transcendentalism, for he was always able to see the cruel as well as the beautiful in nature. Although he searched for a faith that would satisfy his yearning for the Absolute, he never found one”
Via Answers.com

More after the jump >>> More

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Dark Romantics, Transcendentalism, Understanding & Interpretation Tags: , , , ,

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

17 Nov 2011

8 Comments


Moby Dick has hundreds of pages of whale facts. Possibly a thousand metaphors that hide a history lesson. More information than you’ll ever want to know about whaling. And yet despite all this information, the whale, the world, and the book are unknowable. Our narrator, Ishmael, returns again and again to the conclusion that despite education, religion, and intuition we can never truly understand, not only this world, but ourselves.

(Queequeg’s) tattooing had been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefor destined in the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unsolved to the last.

I found this theme of the unknowable fascinating and once I picked up on it, it helped me to understand the purpose of all those whale factoid chapters. Moby Dick is a tangible example of the potential for and limitations of human knowledge and understanding. It boggles my mind not just that Melville knew all the information in this book but that he could seemingly casually pull it out of his head at will and transform it into a humorous or eloquent metaphor. I’m not talking just whale anatomy, and whaling ship practices here. This man knows everything about every civilization, every myth, every story in the Bible…I can’t even. At first I thought Melville was just showing off, “yes, yes I get it you’re well read”. But like every aspect of Moby Dick, you’ve got to think about it and you’ll see that the impossibility of comprehending everything in Moby Dick mirrors our limitations to comprehend everything in life; God, Nature, ourselves.

Moby Dick is a difficult read. It will require dedication and determination from most. It’s not a traditional novel that can be read in a traditional way. That’s not to say it is not an enjoyable read or that it is too complicated to understand. It’s actually very funny. But, you’ve got to get to the funny bits and I completely understand why so many people give up on it.

Since I began reading the classics, I’ve learned the importance of approaching a book on its own terms. I completely believe in adapting your reading self and your expectations to the book. Not every book deserves this effort, that’s for sure, but almost every book that has been labeled “A classic” has some value in it for everyone. Sometimes you just have to dig to find it.

With in the first 150 pages of Moby Dick I was surprised by what an easily enjoyable read it was. I thought, “Oh this has been totally blown out of proportion! Like many classics, it’s just a story”. Haha, then Melville smacked me over the head with 50 chapters on whale anatomy and I had to reaccess. It goes something like this…

  • Ishmael and Queequeg funnies
  • Crazy ass fisherman sermon
  • Whale classifications
  • Jobs on a whale ship
  • Shakespearian soliloquies
  • A play
  • Color analysis
  • Metaphysical mat making
  • Short stories about other boats
  • Chapter 1003, oh hai Ahab, back to the original plot

Mid-book I was feeling very much “Get on with it!” But then I readjusted my expectations and stopped waiting for the Ahab plot to return. I decided instead to approach each chapter with an “Ok what kind of ridiculously obscure whale info will Ishmael have for me now” attitude. And when I did that, I started to enjoy the book again. I would never suggestion that someone skip the whale digression chapters. For one, these chapters ARE Moby Dick. Whenever anyone talks about the book, they laugh about these chapters. So to skip them would be to completely miss the inside joke. Secondly, there are more than just obscure facts in these chapters. Hidden inside are the great themes of the book and some sentences that are too beautiful to miss.

Returning to my thoughts on the purpose of the whale anatomy type chapters, it’s these factual chapters illustrating Ishmael’s knowledge that balance the helplessness in the plot of Moby Dick. None of the characters have control over their destiny. Ishmael, Ahab, the Whale, all the sailors aboard the boat, are just floating along in a predetermined stream. Without the hopefulness of understanding, this story would be very bleak. There are some bright points within the plot, the scenes of friendship between Ishmael and Queequeg and a couple of moving conversations where Starbuck, the first mate, almost sways Ahab from his destructive coarse. But in the end Ahab cannot resist what’s in his soul and we must follow him down the whirlpool.

A looming question in the book is who or what, if anything, is guiding this world? Is there a God, a force of Fate, or is this universe a “heartless void”? If there is a God, and one that created Man in his own image, is it not from Him that Ahab gets his ability for hatred and revenge? The events that unfold seem to point out that contrary to the beliefs of Transcendentalists, this world is not benevolent and good hearted. That Man, God, and Nature’s animals are each like another in their propensity for wickedness and cruelty.

Ishmael survives this mess of a life because he is an observer. He gathers all the information he can about the history of this world, and about this whale that may be the end of all things he knows. But he realizes knowledge is not power and that Fate will toss him as it pleases. Through the whole book Ishmael never stops questioning and striving to understand but he can no more understand what’s behind the visible world than he can understand the motivations of a whale. Still, he clings to the hope that there is something there and some meaning in all things.

And some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher

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For more info on Transcendentalism and other writers during this time period, check out Jillian’s Transcendentalist Event

 

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Dark Romantics, Finis, analysis and reviews Tags: , ,

Changing my mind about Hawthorne aka Great American short stories

25 Oct 2011

2 Comments

Last week I finished up my Gothic tour and closed the books, so to speak, on a couple dense texts. *Looking at you Udolpho and your 600+ pages of tiny text*  Before I dove back into my next read, Moby Dick, I decided to enjoy a few short stories. I finished up Fitzgerald’s Flappers and Philosophers over the weekend and was again amazed at the richness of his writing. In the Ice Palace, a story about a southern belle who relocates to the north for her man, Fitzgerald in a few sentences brought the languid southern heat to life so intently you could feel it prickling on your skin.

The sunlight dripped over the house like golden paint over an art jar, and the freckling shadows here and there only intensified the rigor of the bath of light. The Butterworth and Larkin houses flanking were intrenched behind great stodgy trees; only the Happer house took the full sun, and all day long faced the dusty road-street with a tolerant kindly patience. This was the city of Tarleton in southernmost Georgia, September afternoon.

I continued on with the American’s by grabbing Great American short stories from Hawthorne to Hemingway off my shelf. The first story in the book is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown. I was a little trepidatious about Hawthorne because I was not thrilled with The Scarlett Letter. In fact, I thought the SL introduction was pure torture. Take the intro away and I may have been able to approach the story in a better mood but I still think I would have been disappointed with everything that wasn’t said in the book. I suppose I should not have been surprised that a story about the Puritans was uptight and restrained lol. The Scarlett Letter is a re-read for sure.

Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown therefore caught me by surprise. It’s the story of a man that takes a walk in the woods with the devil and discovers (or imagines?) the evil that lurks with in his Puritan community. This story is a dark and creepy allegory, and I was totally into it.

He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest; which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind.

The next Hawthorne short story in my book was even better, The Birthmark. First off, The Birthmark is very Frankenstein, so you know I’ll love it for that. It’s about another “mad scientist” trying to conquer Nature and getting the smack down for his effort. The scientist, Alymer, becomes obsessed with a birthmark on the face of his otherwise perfect wife and he will not rest until he wipes this tiny mark of humanity and original sin from existence.

Hawthorne can be heavy handed in his foreshadowing and a little obvious in his moralizing but he wants to make sure you don’t miss the point. Since this was the style back then, it doesn’t bother me. The story’s end may not always be surprising yet still, it is an enjoyable journey and he leaves you with lots of metaphor to munch on.

This is the first time I’ve really understood the joy in short stories. Before, I always felt they were too short and didn’t give you time to become absorbed in the characters. The more Hawthorne and Fitzgerald I read though, the more I understand how the short story can be the perfect little package. You can read it in one go, never setting it down, and never having to rip yourself from it back into the real world midstream. Also, if you approach the story from the wrong perspective and feel like you didn’t wrap your mind around how to read it until the very end, you can re-read it in just a few minutes and appreciate what you missed the first time round.

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Dark Romantics, Modernism Tags: , , ,
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