About this item
Inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's own experience as a member of the famous Brook Farm Community, which the author describes in his preface as the "most romantic episode" in his life, The Blithedale Romance is one of the most engaging and complex of Hawthorne's novels. Recounting the hopeful formation and slow fragmentation of a reform-minded socialist community in antebellum Massachusetts, the novel has increasingly preoccupied commentators on American literature and culture over the last few decades. The editors' new introduction helps the reader to negotiate Blithedale's literary difficulties by offering a detailed reflection on the main problems confronted by past and present interpreters of the novel. Appendices expand on the central historical theme of reform, highlighting the novel's references to women's emancipation, antislavery, and Utopian socialism.
About the Author
Born on the fourth of July in 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the stories that lie at the heart of the American Romantic movement. His portraits of colonial life reflect his Puritan heritage and offer fascinating profiles of individuals who strive for freedom from social conventions.Photo by Mathew Brady [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
