The House of the Seven Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) characters

First appears in chapter 2

The impoverished, elderly owner of the House of the Seven Gables. Proud of her Pyncheon ancestry but painfully shy about appearing in public, she opens a small shop in one of the house's gables to support herself and her brother. Her habitual scowl conceals a loyal and tender nature.

First appears in chapter 3

A young daguerreotypist who rents a gable in the Pyncheon house and becomes the shop's first customer. Intelligent, observant, and politically radical, he distrusts inherited privilege and believes old social arrangements should give way to more humane ones.

First appears in chapter 5

A cheerful young cousin from the rural branch of the Pyncheon family who comes to stay at the old house. Practical, affectionate, and unburdened by the family's gloomy habits, she helps Hepzibah with the shop and brings warmth to the household.

First appears in chapter 7

Hepzibah's beloved brother, newly returned after spending decades in prison. He is physically and emotionally fragile, with a refined love of beauty and little capacity for ordinary demands. Hepzibah and Phoebe try to shelter him within the old house.

Also known as Judge Pyncheon

First appears in chapter 8

A wealthy and publicly respected cousin of Hepzibah and Clifford. His polished benevolence resembles that of the ancestral Colonel whose portrait dominates the house, but Hepzibah fears him and refuses his offers of help.

First appears in chapter 4

An elderly neighborhood handyman and familiar visitor to Hepzibah's shop. Poor but sociable and philosophically content, he offers simple friendship to the Pyncheon household and speaks hopefully of retiring to a nearby poorhouse as though it were a comfortable home.

Appears from the start

A forceful Puritan ancestor who obtained Matthew Maule's land and built the seven-gabled mansion upon it. He helped condemn Maule during the witchcraft panic, and his sudden death at the house's opening feast begins the pattern of fear and inherited guilt attached to the Pyncheon family.

Appears from the start

The original owner of the land on which the Pyncheon mansion stands. Accused of witchcraft after refusing to surrender his claim, he is executed and leaves the Pyncheons with a curse that is remembered whenever the family suffers a strange death.

First appears in chapter 3

A boy who becomes the first customer at Hepzibah's cent shop. His eager purchase of a gingerbread figure breaks her reluctance to take money and begins the ordinary commercial life that her family pride had made difficult to accept.

First appears in chapter 13

A beautiful Pyncheon ancestor whose story Holgrave reads to Phoebe. Proud and accustomed to privilege, she becomes involved in her father's effort to recover missing family property through the mesmeric abilities attributed to a descendant of Matthew Maule.

First appears in chapter 13

Alice's father and a former merchant who seeks proof of the Pyncheons' claim to a vast tract of land. He invites a young carpenter of the Maule family into the house, hoping the man's inherited powers can reveal where the missing document is hidden.

First appears in chapter 13

A carpenter and descendant of Matthew Maule who is summoned by Gervayse Pyncheon. He agrees to use mesmerism on Alice but turns the encounter into a demonstration of the Maule family's continuing power over the Pyncheons.