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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a perfect community cannot cure jealousy, pride, or love for the wrong person?
Miles Coverdale leaves his comfortable rooms in Boston to join Blithedale, a farming community built on shared work and shared rewards. A snowstorm greets the dreamers. Soon, planting, hoeing, and hauling test their hopes for a better life. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s romance, changing the world proves harder than making a plan.
Coverdale watches brilliant, wealthy Zenobia, shy seamstress Priscilla, and determined reformer Hollingsworth draw close. Each brings desires that shared labor cannot settle. Hollingsworth wants Blithedale to serve his plan for reforming criminals. Priscilla brings an unexplained past. And Coverdale, curious about everyone, does not always reveal what he feels.
What you’ll discover
- Dreams meet stubborn soil Follow hopeful idealists into daily farm work that leaves little room for lofty talk.
- A woman in bloom Meet Zenobia, whose wit, strong will, and longing for love make her a compelling presence.
- The pull of obsession Watch Hollingsworth’s single purpose test the place of other people in his vision of good.
- Secrets behind quiet faces Trace the questions surrounding Priscilla, a nervous newcomer whose past remains difficult to read.
- A witness worth questioning Look beyond Coverdale’s observations and weigh the feelings he keeps out of plain sight.
Who will love it
Readers who love watchful narrators, love triangles seen from the sidelines, idealistic communities, strong women characters, and people devoted to a single idea will enjoy this novel.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A fresh start carries old doubts
- A stranger tests their kindness
- Tenderness serves a consuming purpose
- Farm work cannot remake the world
- Affection gathers around a single will
- A refusal breaks their shared ground
- Distance brings no clearer answers
- The watcher cannot stand outside
- People put the dream to the test
Who’s who
- Miles CoverdaleA gentle, curious poet who tells the story and joins the colony, but spends more time watching his friends than working.
- ZenobiaA proud, brilliant, wealthy woman and writer who wears a rare flower in her hair and wants love equal to her own strength.
- HollingsworthA former blacksmith and reformer, powerful and tender, who wants to build an institution to reform criminals and judges others by that aim.
- PriscillaA frail, shy seamstress with a nervous manner who clings to Zenobia and comes to worship Hollingsworth.
- Silas FosterThe blunt, practical farmer hired to teach the colonists farming, who offers plain good sense and little sentiment.
- Old MoodieA shy, shabby, one-eyed peddler of silk purses who watches over Priscilla and asks anxious questions about Zenobia.
- Professor WesterveltA handsome, cold, polished man with gold-edged teeth who seeks both Zenobia and Priscilla for his own purposes.
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The Blithedale Romance
by Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1852
A poet joins a farm colony in a snowstorm and finds himself watching a love tangle he cannot stop.
Challenging2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“But the Blithedale Romance. It has a beautiful, wintry-evening farm-kitchen sort of opening.”
In short
The night before he leaves to remake the world on a farm, a poet is stopped in the street by a shabby old man with a patch over one eye. The old man wants a very great favor, will not say what it is, and asks about a woman called Zenobia.
The Blithedale Romance at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 55 min3 h 55 min fast, 5 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 70,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1852by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A poet leaves comfort for a snowy utopia
Miles Coverdale tells his story long after it happened. On the eve of leaving for Blithedale, he comes from a show of the Veiled Lady, a mesmerist's subject hidden under a silvery veil. He asked her whether the farm venture would succeed, and her answer was a riddle. Then an old acquaintance named Moodie calls his name. Moodie wants a very great favor but cannot say what it is. He asks whether Coverdale knows Zenobia, and he slips away.
A northeast gale brings snow in the middle of April. Coverdale arrives at the old farmhouse feeling like an icicle. Zenobia plays hostess, with a rare hothouse flower in her dark hair, and tells him she knows his poems almost by heart.
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Details
- First published
- 1852
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 35 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blithedale-romance.
Hawthorne, N. (2026). The Blithedale romance. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blithedale-romance (Original work published 1852)
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blithedale-romance.
@book{hawthorne2026blithedale,
author = {Hawthorne, Nathaniel},
title = {The Blithedale Romance},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blithedale-romance},
note = {First published 1852}
}
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What is The Blithedale Romance about?
It follows poet Miles Coverdale, who joins a farm colony called Blithedale. There he meets the commanding Hollingsworth, the magnetic Zenobia, and the frail Priscilla, and watches their relationships tighten around one man's plan to reform criminals.
Is The Blithedale Romance based on a true story?
Hawthorne published it in 1852 and drew on his months at the real Brook Farm community. The characters and plot are invented, though readers have long compared Zenobia to real women of the time.
Who is the Veiled Lady in The Blithedale Romance?
She is a famous mesmerist's subject who performs under a silvery veil. The idea returns in Zenobia's told legend and as a symbol of a hidden, controlled person, and it touches the lives of the main characters.
The author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
1804–1864 · American novelist
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short-story writer born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. He lived in Massachusetts and served as a United States consul in Liverpool, England. He wrote The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). He died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, in 1864.
“What a cold Arcadia this was!”
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