The Blithedale Romance

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Blithedale Romance is a work of fiction based on Hawthorne's recollections of Brook Farm, a short-lived agricultural and educational commune where Hawthorne lived from April to November 1841. The commune, an attempt at an intellectual utopian society, brought together many famous Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller. He had feelings of affectionate skepticism toward the commune. The character of Zenobia is said to have been modelled upon Margaret Fuller. Suggested prototypes for Hollingsworth include Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Horace Mann, while the narrator is often supposed to be none other than Hawthorne himself. Reproduction of 1852 First Edition.