The novel centers on a decaying Salem mansion built on stolen land and a curse — Colonel Pyncheon seized the property from Matthew Maule, who was executed as a witch, and Maule’s dying words promised the Pyncheons would drink blood in return. Generations later, the family is still living out the consequences, most visibly in the impoverished, embittered Hepzibah Pyncheon and her brother Clifford, who returns home after decades wrongly imprisoned for murder — a crime tangled up in the same inherited guilt.

Hawthorne is explicit that this isn’t really a ghost story, whatever the gothic trappings suggest. It’s an argument about inherited guilt: the idea that the sins of the past — theft, cruelty, false accusation — don’t stay contained in the generation that committed them but calcify into real, material harm for the people who come after, whether or not they did anything wrong themselves. The arrival of Phoebe, a cheerful, unburdened young cousin, and Holgrave, a boarder with his own hidden connection to the Maules, offers the novel’s counter-argument — that the cycle can, maybe, be broken rather than merely inherited.

Course Details

2 Sections Offered (select one section on the registration form):

Section 1
Sundays | Oct 25, Nov 1, Nov 8, Nov 15, Nov 29
7:00–8:15 PM ET
(6:00–7:15 PM CT  /  4:00–5:15 PM PT)

Section 2
Wednesdays | Oct 28, Nov 4, Nov 11, Nov 18, Dec 2
7:00–8:15 PM ET
(6:00–7:15 PM CT  /  4:00–5:15 PM PT)

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Buy the book via Amazon here.

To apply, click “Add This Course” above. When you’ve added all your courses, click “Apply Now” below to finish your registration. You’ll choose your dates and section in the next step.