This Norton Critical Edition of The Blithedale Romance is based on the
Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, widely considered
the best available edition. It is accompanied by explanatory annotations
to help readers with Hawthorne's many historical and literary references
as well as with other possible sources of difficulty in the text.
"Contexts" is thematically organized and includes a rich and varied
selection of materials, both public and private, focusing on Hawthorne's
inspirations for the novel. Included are letters, excerpts from
journals, published accounts of Brook Farm and the growth of antebellum
social reform, Hawthorne's letters to Sophia Peabody and Louisa
Hawthorne about his first days at Brook Farm, and later letters
describing his growing reservations about and decision to leave the
utopian community. The Blithedale Romance raises interesting questions
about the role of women, the popularity of mesmerism, and the growth of
cities in mid-nineteenth-century America. Margaret Fuller, Charles
Baudelaire, and Hawthorne, among others, provide invaluable insight.
"Criticism" begins with major contemporary reviews by Herman Melville,
William B. Pike, George S. Hillard, James T. Fields, Henry Fothergill
Chorley, and others that suggest The Blithedale Romance's initial
reception. "Selections from Classic Studies" reprints key excerpts from
influential essays published through the 1970s, including those by Henry
James, D. H. Lawrence, Irving Howe, and James McIntosh.
"Recent Criticism" collects a striking range of scholarly interpretation
by Nina Baym, Joel Pfister, Gillian Brown, Richard H. Brodhead, Lauren
Berlant, Russ Castronovo, Robert S. Levine, and Richard H. Millington.
A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are also included.
