THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES

Description

Although direct references to Swedenborg in Hawthorne’s work are rare, there is no doubt that he was heavily exposed to Swedenborgian ideas throughout his life—at Brook Farm; from Emerson and Thoreau; during his stay in Europe. One can certainly detect this influence in The House of the Seven Gables, a self-proclaimed Romance that abounds with magic, spirits and mystics. As well as these broadly occult undercurrents however, Devin Zuber is right to point out more specific Swedenborgian resonances: Uncle Venner remarks that ‘Angels do not toil, but let their good works grow out of them’ (p.82); later on, the narrator is moved to refer to moonbeams as ‘a kind of window or doorway into the spiritual world’ (p.281).

Reference: Devin P Zuber, ‘Spiritualized science and the celestial artist: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Swedenborgian aesthetics’, in Philosophy, Literature, Mysticism.