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First published in 1851, “The House of the Seven Gables” is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s gothic novel which follows the fates of a New England family and their ancestral home. Inspired by a house in Salem Massachusetts which had belonged to the ancestors of Nathaniel Hawthorne who had played a part in the Salem Witch Trials, “The House of the Seven Gables” is the story of Hepzibah Pyncheon and her brother Clifford who has recently been released from prison after serving a thirty-three year sentence for murder. According to legend the mansion, which is built upon land acquired through unscrupulous circumstances by Hepzibah and Clifford’s ancestor Colonel Pyncheon, carries with it a curse on the Pyncheons, following the family through the many generations that inherit it. Hawthorne brilliantly uses this curse to create a gloomy forbidding atmosphere around the Pyncheons and the house that they inhabit. As the novel draws to its conclusion the reader is filled with the suspenseful question as to whether or not Hepzibah and Clifford will be the final victims of the curse or if it is all just a silly superstition. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and includes an introduction by George Parsons Lathrop.

First published in 1609, “The Sonnets” of William Shakespeare are a collection of 154 loosely connected 14 line poems. Considered by many to be among some of the greatest love poetry ever written much debate surrounds the context of the poetry. It has been suggested that the work may be semi-autobiographical but no real evidence firmly supports this notion. The themes of the poems contained within this volume are varied and include such subjects as the passage of time, love, beauty, and mortality. Some scholars have interpreted the collection as a parody of the 300-year-old tradition of Petrarchan love sonnets. This analysis arises out of the fact that Shakespeare inverts conventional gender roles creating a more complex depiction of human love. Seen as a new type of love poetry when first written, “The Sonnets” largely languished in obscurity until the renewed interest in Shakespeare’s work which accompanied the Romantic literary movement of the 19th century. Regardless of Shakespeare’s intent behind the writing of “The Sonnets”, these poems can be appreciated individually or as a whole as examples of William Shakespeare’s true literary genius. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper, includes a preface and annotations by Henry N. Hudson, and an introduction by Charles Harold Herford.