THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE

Hawthorne Nathaniel

Published by Boston Ticknor, Reed and Fields 1852

First American edition, with all Clark's points for first printing, ads dated July. 8vo, in the original Ticknor style A brown cloth, lettered in gilt on spine and with all-over decorative work in blind on the covers. 288, [4 ads. bound at the front] pp. A very good copy, the text is fresh and with little evidence of age or use, mellowing to the inserted ads only, the cloth clean with bright gilt and no fading but with some wear at the corners, shoulders, and spine tips. FIRST EDITION AND FIRST PRINTING, and a very scarce Hawthorne title in nice condition. Hawthorne's "romance' was based on Brook Farm, a community farm near Boston. It examines what progress, if any, has been made to the human animal. Blithedale, like Brook Farm, was a would-be modern Arcadia along the lines of the anti-capitalist ideals of Charles Fourier, but in spite of the lofty ideals falls prey to the self-interested behavior of its members. Though this concept for a work of fiction may sound a bit heady, Henry James called it "the lightest, the brightest, the liveliest" of Hawthorne's "fictions." Hawthorne s claim that the characters of the novel are "entirely fictitious" has been widely questioned and many suggest that Bronson Alcott, Emerson, Horace Mann , Margaret Fuller and Hawthorne himself can all be found in this novel. Seller Inventory # 33231

Bibliographic Details

Title: THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE
Publisher: Boston Ticknor, Reed and Fields 1852
Binding: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Edition