A group of Utopians, dispirited by a mid-19th-century America they view as dissolute, takes to the pastoral life, but finds little satisfaction in its socialist living experiments.
His portraits of colonial life reflect his Puritan heritage and offer fascinating profiles of individuals who strive for freedom from social conventions..
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.
An engrossing novel about love, idealism, and politics tragically gone amiss, this captivating work bristles with the author\'s perceptive wit and intelligence.
First published in 1852, The Blithedale Romance was based in part on Hawthorne\'s disillusioning experiences with the Brook Farm experimental community near Boston in 1841.
Among the group are Hollingsworth, an idealistic but egotistical reformer
Zenobia, an ardent feminist and exotic beauty
Priscilla, her frail and mysterious sister
Old Moodie, the sisters\' manipulative father
Westervelt, a demonic mesmerist; and Miles Coverdale, whose narrative of the Blithedale experiment reveals the sexist and classist oppression permeating the Utopian group.
Little by little, the members\' hypocrisies, contradictions, and ideological and economic paradoxes are exposed -- even as they attempt to create the ideal community.
A group of Utopians, dispirited by a mid-19th-century America they view as dissolute, takes to the pastoral life, but finds little satisfaction in its socialist living experiments
