This is pretty pointless and apropos of nothing, but it involves literature, so I’m putting it here.
I live not far from Salem, MA, which has the famous House of Seven Gables, the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of the same name. For the longest time, I thought it meant something like this image from the Warner Brothers cartoon “Have You Got Any Castles?”
I’d never seen a house quite like that, although in my drives around the greater Boston area I’ve found one house with six gables (in Wakefield, MA) and one with eight (in North Reading). Neither is a family dwelling – they’re both commercial buildings.
I was very surprised to learn that the actual House of Seven Gables looks nothing like either of these. Evidently Hawthorne was using an old definition of “gable” that means a triangular structure that is in a direct path with the roofline. They explain this on a tour of the house.
It’s interesting to learn, then, that
1.) The house only has Seven Gables now because they reconstructed the house that way after it was purchased by the House of Seven Gables Settlement Association. Previous owners had remodeled the house and gotten ride of some of the gables (as well as “modernizing” the appearance). The Association also added features the house never previously had, just so that it would more closely resemble Hawthorne’s fictional house (such as a little shop and a well).
2.) The House didn’t even have seven gables when Hawthorne visited it – it only had three at the time, and one of the inhabitants showed him where the others had been. But he liked the name and the symbolism, so it became “The House of the Seven Gables” in his book.
Been to Salem during Halloween, it’s a good time and just full of history. The tour of the house is cool. I imagine Massachusetts is still fairly locked down, has Covid affected the activities and the crowds going there this year?
Fun fact – Price actually appeared in two different versions of The House of the Seven Gables
He was in the 1940 film that you cite, playing Clifford Pyncheon.
But he also played Gerald Pyncheon in the 1963 film Twice Told Tales, which adapts House and two other Hawthorne stories.
and, no, they couldn’t really do it justice in what amounts to half an hour’s running time in that anthology film. They also made it bloodier. But what do you expect? This was made to compete with Roger Corman’s early 1960s Edgar Allen Poe films. But Hawthorne is very different from Poe (even Corman’s version of Poe), and I don’t think the film did as well.
They cancelled Salem’s “Haunted Happenings” this year – no big get-togethers, parties, parades, and events. But Salem still has more visitors than usual this month, so evidently people still want to get the spooky vibes from Salem, even without all the trimmings.
I have to admit, I’ve never read the book, either. I find Hawthorne’s early 19th century prose pretty tough going (like James Fenimore Cooper’s). I’ve read The Scarlet Letter more than once, and several of his short stories, but I’ve never tackled The House of the Seven Gables. I’ve seen the movies and read the Classics Illustrated version, though. I’m not a complete Philistine.
Haven’t read the book – or the comic book adaptation – but I watched the 1940 movie within the last year or so. I kinda liked it, and three things stood out to me: it was unusual to see Vin Price playing a sympathetic part. It was even weirder to hear him sing. Oddest of all was his maniacal laughter at the end of the courtroom scene, a clear sign that – his eggcellence as Egghead notwithstanding - he would have made a superlative Joker back in the day.
Old? Is there another way of describing a gabled roof?
Interesting review of popular literature in the animation clip. Many of them more famous at the time for the film adaptions. I’ve read most of them , and know of most of the rest, but there are a few I’d never heard of, including
The White House Cookbook.
I guess it’s period of popularity preceded my mothers arrival in the USA
7th Heaven
For all I know, could be any one of the books of that name: I’ve never seen a previous reference. Assuming it’s a film reference, maybe the 1927 movie or '37 remake of the same name?
Yep. The tour guide at the House of Seven Gables gave it, but I can’t recall it exactly. It’s something like a subsidiary roofline that descends from the main roofline – by which definition many modern gables don’t actually qualify, since there’s no connection to the top roofline. The Wikipedia definition – " …the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches" – doesn’t require that the roofline of the “gabvle” be connected to that top roofline.
I can understand thinking that only gabled windows (like in the animation) count, but I’ve not heard another word for ‘the triangular section of wall’
Before the development of modern building calculations, hipped roofs were difficult and expensive. You have to cut more complex rafters, and fit them into place. So instead you just put up gables, and extended roof ridges out to the gables. You can make all the roof ridges the same heights, or different heights: that just depends on the floor plan. If you wanted a cheaper house, a simple rectangle floor plan with one roof ridge, and gables at either end.
'fraid so. The gable isn’t only the window, but the entire triangular construction that stands out from the roof. If it weren’t, that “Seven Gabbles” joke in the cartoon wouldn’t make any sense.
so it’s not “something like a subsidiary roofline that descends from the main roofline”, and I don’t know what you meant by “using an old definition of gable”: To me, The House of 7 gables looks like a house with 7 gables.
Anyway, as near as I can figure, “7th Heaven” was a play before it was a popular movie, so I guess the animation is including plays (as well as cook books) in “literature” that they want to make jokes about.
To me (and, I think, to most people), a Gable always looked like this:
The “gables” are the three triangular structures in the front. As thy have no direct connection to the roofline, they don’t meet the “old” definition of gables. That definition is the one used in the cartoon Have you got any Castles.
The House of the Seven Gables looks like this:
The triangular construction in the front over the door isn’t a “gable”, but the structure seen in profile on the left IS, even though it isn’t directly on the same level as the roofline
To me, the construction of the house doesn’t include seven of what I would have called “gables”, but they do qualify by the definition in use aty the time. That roof off to the left in the above photo wouldn’t have qualified if it wasn’t connected to the major roofline by a sloping section.
Ok, that’s not what I’m seeing in the animation: I see a rectangular house with gabled windows that do not meet the roof line.
And I don’t see how this follows either: “Evidently Hawthorne was using an old definition of “gable” that means a triangular structure that is in a direct path with the roofline.” – the Hawthorne house also seems to be gabled, by any definition old or new.
Also “So Red The Nose” was a well-known cocktail recipe collection (now collectable), but it earns its place by being a collection of cocktails from well known literary figures and others.
That’s precisely my point – in the animation they are using the commonly-used interpretation of “gable”, which is a triangular structure attached to a house that does not necessarily have any connection to the roofline. That’;s what most people (myself included) think that a gable is.
But it’s not what Hawthorne and his contemporaries thought a “gable” was.
So when I first saw the House of the SEven Gables, my first thought was “it doesn’t have Seven Gables”. And by my definition, it didn’t.
Well first, my definition of gable always matched the one that is apparently the definition, I never thought it was just for dormers (if that’s what you’re saying). So I’m confused.
Second, if we’re going to talk about the House of the Seven Gables, I feel like we have to mention the secret staircase, which is of course not so secret now. How fun is that thing? Yes it’s narrow, and its location may not make sense, but back when we regularly visited Salem (we almost moved there) I always loved that part.
Well, from my experience with people – and that gag in the cartoon – not everyone seems to feel that way. But I understand your confusion with what I’ve said if you do.
