Excerpt from The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Margaret Moore
Excerpt from The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Margaret Moore
(courtesy of University
of Missouri Press)
Margaret Moore makes it clear that the historical Thomas Maule is the model for
the curmudgeonly Matthew Maule of The House of the Seven Gables.
"Hawthorne had read a great deal about the period of Quaker persecution
in Massachusetts. He knew not only about those who came from overseas, whom
he most emphasized, but also about the homegrown variety. A well-known Quaker,
Thomas Maule, lends his name-inadvertently-to Matthew Maule in The House
of the Seven Gables" (32).
