The House of the Seven Gables


Book Description

The House of the Seven Gables is an American icon. It is one of the nation's oldest homes and one of its first historic house museums. Built in 1668, it is a unique and well-restored first period house displaying many preserved 17th- and 18th-century architectural features. Three generations of the seafaring Turner family lived in the home before the American Revolution. In the 19th century, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne was hosted in the house by his cousin, and the setting encouraged his literary genius. After this famous association, the house attracted tourists even before it opened to the public when the artistic Upton family called the mansion home. In 1910, Caroline Emmerton, an enterprising philanthropist, opened the home to raise money to help local immigrants. She restored the structure and brought other historic houses from Salem to the property.




House of Seven Gables


Book Description

An abridged version of the misfortunes that plague a prominent New England family because of greed and a two-hundred-year-old curse.




The House Next Door


Book Description

The house next door to the Kennedys appears to be haunted by an all-pervasive evil, and the couple watches as a succession of owners becomes engulfed by the sinister force, until the Kennedys set out to destroy the house themselves.







The Making of My Fair Lady


Book Description

The common lament was Broadway will never be the same! when My Fair Lady finally ended its stellar run the night of Sunday, September 30, 1962. Millions of people had seen the show over six years and had helped break box-office records, even though Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Stanley Holloway, and Robert Coote did not stay with the cast throughout the six-year run. MyFair Lady used the substance and wit of George Bernard Shaw to add a new dimension to the Broadway libretto.




Wieland; or The Transformation, and Memoirs of Carwin, The Biloquist


Book Description

One of the earliest American novels, Wieland (1798) is a thrilling tale of suspense and intrigue set in rural Pennyslvania in the 1760s. Based on an actual case of a New York farmer who murdered his family, the novel employs Gothic devices and sensational elements such as spontaneous combustion, ventriloquism, and religious fanaticism. The plot turns on the charming but diabolical intruder Carwin, who exercises his power over the narrator, Clara Wieland, and her family, destroying the order and authority of the small community in which they live. Underlying the mystery and horror, however, is a profound examination of the human mind's capacity for rational judgement. The text also explores some of the most important issues vital to the survival of democracy in the new American republic. Brown further considers power and manipulation in his unfinished sequel, Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist, which traces Carwin's career as a disciple of the utopist Ludloe. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.




Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions


Book Description

Lame Deer Storyteller, rebel, medicine man, Lame Deer was born almost a century ago on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. A full-blooded Sioux, he was many things in the white man's world -- rodeo clown, painter, prisioner. But, above all, he was a holy man of the Lakota tribe. Seeker of Vision The story he tells is one of harsh youth and reckless manhood, shotgun marriage and divorce, history and folklore as rich today as ever -- and of his fierce struggle to keep pride alive, though living as a stranger in his own ancestral land.







The Witch of Seven Gables


Book Description

The Whiting family has no idea what hell is in store for them. They are drawn into a downward spiral of psychological and supernatural torture . The Great Beast has turned its will against all that would stand in the way of the immolation of all mankind. Unwittingly, John Whiting built his home and brought his family into the lair of The Witch of Seven Gables. In this excerpt from Chapter Two, Remember the Maine, you get a taste for what will follow. (WARNING: graphic description to follow, may not be suitable for younger readers).Somewhere deep in the primitive part of his brain, something compelled him to look over his shoulder and be prepared to fight. He felt a shudder in his spine. To lay eyes upon the thing turned his blood to sleet. Impossibly fast, the blue apparition charged from the distance toward him, bent on murder. Stricken, he watched the horror close in on him. A corpse woman wrapped in its awful shroud cast in a blue light from a hellish place bore down on him faster than anything could possibly move. Paralyzed, he begged his leaden arms and legs to move, but to no avail. The closer the wraith came, the more urgency he felt. The awful, scorching heat of terror burned his flesh until he unlocked somehow and began to move, but he could only scramble back, reeling with affright. Stumbling backward over a rotten log he fell, never taking eyes off the ghoulish figure overtaking him. Down he fell on his ass. Then a flash of light following the blow to the back of his head from falling against an unforgiving surface. His eyes closed, and he was out. One, two, then he slowly returned to his senses. 'Fight dammit, ' he thought, forcing his eyes to open. The corpse woman was face-to-face with him. He could feel the cold of her skin near his face. Trying to perceive what his eyes were seeing, staring back into his eyes were the dimly veiled, white opaque eyes of the dead. Her mouth was open to bite his face, she moved in now and he could smell the s***-smelling foulness of her corpsey maw. Rotten flesh, grey gums and inky teeth all showing from the grimace of decay and ferocity. An inch from his face she paused above him and arched her back as if to draw breath, and then the scream smashed his brain like a hatchet. The sound made him scramble to his feet wincing from the bite that he knew was coming.