The novel's preface,"The Custom House" " is an integral portion of the novel. As such, I pointed out that according to the author, his seeming inability to live other than in Salem, Massachusetts, is in part due to his family's long history there, especially his ancestor's participation as a judge in the Salem witch trials. This mirrors actions of the main character in the book. We discussed the author's seeking forgiveness for his ancestor's historical sin, and how the novel's theme of elusive expiation is introduced in the preface. We briefly noted the role of shame in Puritan society versus in today's society . Remaining focused on the preface's language, I pointed out how the author explains how his imaginative facilities were indispensable to creating the Romantic style. We then worked on a grammar and usage exercise focused on a variety of issues tested by the ACT and SAT. Olivia has a good working knowledge of grammar and usage,but we will continue to address areas where additional review is warranted. For homework, I assigned reading pages 35-40 of the novel and correcting 5 sentences with subject -verb agreement errors.