[Hac-announce] April 2018 Book Discussion: "The Blithedale Romance" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Tue Apr 3 16:43:26 EDT 2018

Our book for April is The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The discussion will take place Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 2 pm in the library of the Unitarian Society of New Haven at 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden.Note: The April Book Discussion will occur on the 2nd Saturday, April 14, instead of the 21st.

>From Wikipedia:

The Blithedale Romance is a work of fiction based on Hawthorne's recollections of Brook Farm, a short-lived agricultural and educational commune… The commune, an attempt at an intellectual utopian society, interested many famous Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller…

>From Amazon:

[The novel is a] superb depiction of a utopian community that cannot survive the individual passions of its members. In language that is suggestive and often erotic, Hawthorne tells a tale of failed possibilities and multiple personal betrayals as he explores the contrasts between what his characters espouse and what they actually experience in an 'ideal' community. A theme of unrealized sexual possibilities serves as a counterpoint to the other failures at Blithedale: class and sex distinctions are not eradicated, and communal work on the farm proves personally unrewarding and economically disastrous.

"Hawthorne, in putting this novel together, was engaged in the most serious literary enterprise of his career." – Louis Auchincloss

Light snacks will be served.

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