13 - The Blithedale Romance

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Norton, 1978
418 pages (228)
Date completed: November 18, 2009


So this wasn't one of my favorite books, but it had its redeeming qualities. Basically my favorite part was that there's a very strong female character, Zenobia. Besides that...well, there's a lot that bothers me.

First of all, the narrator, Coverdale, is an absolute creeper. He practically wets himself at the opportunity to hide and observe other people. He has this special tree in the woods that he calls his "hermitage" and he hangs out in it and watches the other people who live on Blithedale farm, and they have no idea that he's watching. At another point, he hides in his hotel room and stares out the window at his friends in another room; then he hides behind a tree in the forest outside where other characters are having a bonfire so he can watch them. Creepiest of all, though, is when at one point he wishes he could just arrive at the farm unbeknownst to everyone else and watch them through the windows from outside.

So yeah. The narrator is, among other things, basically a sneaky stalker. He doesn't ever form real relationships with other characters because he's always judging them and imposing his own idea of their personality on them.

The other character who bothered me a great deal was Priscilla, Zenobia's long-lost sister who is always likened to a "leaf" or an "airy breeze" or something. Basically, she shows up at Blithedale and throws herself prostrate at her sister's feet, gazing up at her in admiration until it makes everyone else sick. She won't talk, she won't defend herself, she just worships everyone and acts like a little mouse. If she does anything at all, it's always something domestic-- particularly sitting off in a corner and making little purses. And of course, Coverdale the idiot makes stupid observations, the most insane being that he believes that Priscilla will grow up to be a fine young woman because she is so capable of sublimating herself. Uh, ack.

So there isn't much to redeem this novel for me...I think Hawthorne is mocking the idea of a bunch of upper-class people getting together and starting a utopian society for fun. It's impossible t0 be utopian--everyone on the farm is pushing his or her own agenda. Therefore it's satirizing the transcendentalist movement. Also, Zenobia is supposed to represent Margaret Fuller, which I thought was pretty cool. Fuller was also a strong female. Creepy though that Hawthorne has Zenobia meet the same watery end as Fuller did in real life.

Overall, I'm pretty glad to be done with this one.