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Revision as of 15:05, 4 June 2006
The Blithedale Romance (1852) was the third of the major romances of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Henry James (in Hawthorne, 1879) called it "the lightest, the brightest, the livelist" of Hawthorne's "unhumorous fictions."
Much of the action of the novel is set at Blithedale, a utopian socialist community that is founded upon anti-capitalist ideals, yet is destroyed by the self-interested behavior of its members. Among those members are: Hollingsworth, a philanthropic misogynist who intends to turn Blithedale into a colony for the reformation of criminals; Zenobia, a strong-minded feminist who ironically finds Hollingsworth's misogyny irresistible; and Miles Coverdale, the unreliable narrator, a professional poet given to acts of voyeurism.
Blithedale is based loosely on Brook Farm, a short-lived commune where Hawthorne lived from April to November 1841. Hawthorne's sardonic attitude toward Brook Farm is reflected in the numerous letters he wrote from Brook Farm to Sophia Peabody, his future wife. The character of Zenobia is said to have been modelled upon Margaret Fuller, an acquaintance of Hawthorne and a frequent guest at Brook Farm.