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Abjuring the city for a pastoral life, a group of utopians set out to reform a dissipated America. But the group is a powerful mix of competing ambitions and its idealism finds little satisfaction in farmwork. Instead, of changing the world, the members of the Blithedale community... Read Full Overview

This Norton Critical Edition of The Blithedale Romance is based on the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, widely considered the best available edition. It is accompanied by explanatory annotations to help readers with Hawthorne's many historical and literary... Read Full Overview

The selection of "Backgrounds and Sources" focuses on Hawthorne's visit to Brook Farm in 1841, as reported in his letters and The American Notebooks, as well as on other experiences and observations which find expression in the novel.

The essays in "Criticism" include... Read Full Overview

A superb depiction of a utopian community that cannot survive the individual passions of its members. In language that is suggestive and often erotic, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a tale of failed possibilities and multiple personal betrayals as he explores the contrasts between... Read Full Overview

The Blithedale Romance is a classic story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

First published in 1852, "The Blithedale Romance" is the third of Nathaniel Hawthorne's romantic novels. Set in the utopian communal farm called Blithedale in the 1840's, the novel tells the story of four inhabitants of the commune: Hollingsworth, a misogynist philanthropist... Read Full Overview

The story takes place primarily in the utopian community of Blithedale, presumably in the mid-1800s. The main character, Miles Coverdale, embarks on a quest for the betterment of the world through the agrarian lifestyle and community of the Blithedale Farm. The story begins with... Read Full Overview

Depiction of a utopian community that cannot survive the individual passions of its members.

The Blithedale Romance, considered one of Hawthorne's major novels, explores the limitations of human nature set against... Read Full Overview

Written in one of the most productive periods of his career, Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance was published in 1852, a year after The House of the Seven Gables and two years after his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter. With The Blithedale Romance, Hawthorne writes fully in his own... Read Full Overview

Hawthorne's spectacular and thoughtful tale of love within a utopia demonstrates the author at his most accomplished and flowing. Miles Coverdale is our protagonist: his chief aim is to improve the lives and community of Blithedale Farm. We hear the myth of the Veiled Lady, a... Read Full Overview

A group of Utopians, unhappy with dissolute, mid-19th-century America, takes to the pastoral life; but the members find little satisfaction in the communal life. Instead of changing the world, they pursue self-centered paths that ultimately lead to tragedy. Absorbing 1852 novel... Read Full Overview

A group of Utopians, unhappy with dissolute, mid-19th-century America, takes to the pastoral life; but the members find little satisfaction in the communal life. Instead of changing the world, they pursue self-centered paths that ultimately lead to tragedy. Absorbing 1852 novel... Read Full Overview