文档介绍：The House of the Seven The House of the Seven Gables Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne ? CONTENTS ? The background ? General Plot Summary ? List of Character ? Hawthorne's Use of Symbols ? The appreciation of the novel Background ? The novel begins: ?"Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst. The street is Pyncheon Street; the house is the old Pyncheon House; and an elm-tree, of wide circumference, rooted before the door, is familiar to every town-born child by the title of the Pyncheon Elm." ? The Pyncheon family actually existed and were ancestors of American novelist Thomas Pynchon.[1] 在新英格兰的一个小镇上有一条横街,街的中段矗立着一座古旧的木质楼房,楼顶七个陡峭的尖角阁面朝不同的方向高耸着,中间是一组巨大的烟囱。这条街叫品钦街,这座房子就是古老的品钦老宅。宅子门前立着一棵粗壮的大榆树,但凡小镇上出生的孩子都熟悉这棵树,管它叫品钦榆树。我偶尔几次造访该镇,总会绕到品钦街,为的是可以在那两大古迹(巨大的榆树和饱经风霜的老宅)的阴影下面走一走。这座古宅的外表总让我觉得像是一个人的容貌,斑斑印记不仅是风吹雨打的痕迹,也显露出漫漫人生中所经历的沧桑变幻、盛衰荣辱。如果这些值得叙述的话,将会是一部饶有趣味的喻世之作,同时还具有明显的统一性,仿佛是出自艺术家的匠心。但是这个故事包括一连串的事件,贯穿了两个世纪的大部分年代,如适当加以丰富扩展,足以写成一部对开本的巨册或一整套十二开本的书,篇幅甚至超过同时期新英格兰的编年史。因此,不得不对以品钦老宅或称七个尖角阁的老宅为主题的大多数传说加以压缩处理。? House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts — today a museum panying a settlement house — was at one time owned by Hawthorne's cousin, Susanna Ingersoll, and she entertained him there often. Its seven-gabled state was known to Hawthorne only through childhood stories from his cousin; at the time of his visits, he would have seen just three gables due to architectural renovations. Reportedly, Ingersoll inspired Hawthorne to write the novel, though Hawthorne also stated that the book was a work of complete fiction, based on no particular house. [2] 《七个尖角阁的老宅》又名《七个尖角阁的房子》,借用家族诅咒这一古老的哥特传统,描写了品钦家族因祖上谋财害命而使后代遭到报应的故事。小说对七角阁老宅的描绘,处处充满着象征意义。老宅里与街道的对比是黑暗与光明的对比,老宅里表示过去、死亡、束缚和与世隔绝;街道上则象征着现在、生命、自由和现实。七角阁老宅处在形形色色的阴影之中,这些阴影象征着各种罪恶。从那张模糊不清、沾满灰尘的地图可以看到品钦法官的贪婪,从那张褪色了的画像中可以看到上校的冷酷和邪恶,从那架黑色的、样子像具棺材的大键琴上可以看