The Foreward is presented as several book pages, being turned by a human hand followed by the Prologue.
FOREWARD: "In the middle of the 17th Century in New England, there lived one Colonel Jeffrey Pyncheon, a powerful leader of the Colonial Government."
"In order to acquire a valuable piece of land, Pyncheon cold-heartedly accused its owner, a simple carpenter named Matthew Maule, of practicing Witchcraft."
"The innocent man was promptly condemned to hang. From the scaffold Matthew Maule had hurled this curse: 'God hath given him blood to drink!'"
"Colonel Pyncheon defiantly built his mansion on the dead man's ground. On the day of its completion he was found dead in his new library... blood trickling from his mouth. His descendants lived on at Seven Gables. Succeeding generations of villagers clung to the belief that 'Maule's Curse' dwelt there with them."
PROLOGUE: "Then, one hundred sixty years later, on a September night in the year 1828....."