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A review by msand3
The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
3.0
2.5 stars. It's hard to understand how a novel that begins so well can take a turn for the dreadful about 2/3 of the way through. Hawthorne presents a light (and often funny) account of several people at a socialist commune (based on Brook Farm) who are clearly unable to put their noble philosophy into practice. They are selfish, lazy, horny, jealous, and materialistic, and it's enjoyable to watch them pretend to be otherwise. The characters are very thinly-veiled sketches of real people, despite Hawthorne's preface claiming the contrary. Indeed, the preface, which reeks of "he doth protest too much" rhetoric, only makes the reader assume that these characters are most definitely based on real people! This includes the narrator, a head-in-the-clouds poet who is obviously a fictionalization of Hawthorne himself.
Despite this promising opening, the novel begins to go off the rails when the protagonist leaves the commune. Events turn darker, but in a way that ends up souring the novel rather than illuminating the lessons learned from the failed attempt at transcendental bliss. The final chapter returns to being funny (but for all the wrong reasons!) as the protagonist laments growing older and extravagantly reveals a "secret" so obvious I could only chuckle that Hawthorne uses it to conclude his novel as a shocking revelatory moment. Had this not been written by Hawthorne, it would have been largely forgotten after publication.
Despite this promising opening, the novel begins to go off the rails when the protagonist leaves the commune. Events turn darker, but in a way that ends up souring the novel rather than illuminating the lessons learned from the failed attempt at transcendental bliss. The final chapter returns to being funny (but for all the wrong reasons!) as the protagonist laments growing older and extravagantly reveals a "secret" so obvious I could only chuckle that Hawthorne uses it to conclude his novel as a shocking revelatory moment. Had this not been written by Hawthorne, it would have been largely forgotten after publication.