Which 19th-century American Gothic writer helped establish the short story genre in America and wrote The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter?

Which 19th-century American Gothic writer helped establish the short story genre in America and wrote The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter?

• A. Edgar Allan Poe
• B. Nathaniel Hawthorne
• C. Washington Irving
• D. James Fenimore Cooper

Answer: (B)

The writer you’re looking for blends moral inquiry with Gothic mood, and wrote both a famous puritanical tale and a house-centered gothic novel. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter explores sin, guilt, and social judgment in a 17th-century Puritan setting, while The House of the Seven Gables uses a haunted family mansion to probe heritage, secrecy, and consequence. His concise, symbolism-rich storytelling helped shape a distinctly American short fiction tradition, showing that powerful ideas and dark atmospheres could be conveyed in relatively compact form. Though Poe is also a key figure in establishing the American short story and Gothic fiction, the two works mentioned belong to Hawthorne. Other writers like Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper contributed in different ways to American literature, but Hawthorne is the one associated with these titles.

The writer you’re looking for blends moral inquiry with Gothic mood, and wrote both a famous puritanical tale and a house-centered gothic novel. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter explores sin, guilt, and social judgment in a 17th-century Puritan setting, while The House of the Seven Gables uses a haunted family mansion to probe heritage, secrecy, and consequence. His concise, symbolism-rich storytelling helped shape a distinctly American short fiction tradition, showing that powerful ideas and dark atmospheres could be conveyed in relatively compact form. Though Poe is also a key figure in establishing the American short story and Gothic fiction, the two works mentioned belong to Hawthorne. Other writers like Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper contributed in different ways to American literature, but Hawthorne is the one associated with these titles.