Not my favorite Hawthorne (reserved for the Scarlett Letter) but still an interesting read. The story itself is a little over melodramatic but what makes it worthwhile is the placement of the story in a New England transcendentalist commune. ( )

I'm not entirely sure what to think of this book. When I read it from this current period, the way the men are behaving seems strange.
A book of which the storylines eluded me at times. Why murder someone when you love another? Or was the confesser not the murderer? The sad ending somehow fits but is a bit dramatical imho.
And I'm not so fond of the book that I feel the need to go back and look what I might have missed at a certain point. ( )

So, "The Blithesdale Romance" certainly isn't Nathaniel Hawthorne's best work but I still found it interesting nonetheless. It had an odd way of getting at the story -- in a sort of meandering way, but I thought the overall story was interesting once the book finally got to it.

Our narrator Myles Coverdale joins a communal farm named Blithesdale, which is populated by some quirky and interesting characters. There isn't really a ton of information about farm life, it's more about Coverdale's efforts to slowly uncover the lives of his fellow residents Zenobia and Priscilla.

Sometimes the plot gets lost a bit in the poetic ramblings about the trees or the walls (or whatever) but I liked it enough to continue on to see what would happen. The ending also surprised me, so bonus points for that, too. ( )

Enjoyable romance with tragic elements. ( )

This book was chosen while trying to complete a LT Challenge.

It was listed as a satire, yet there was barely enough information presented about the daily lives of the people who joined to form the experimental Blithedale community to satirize.

The plot ranged from faux mysteries to goofy, with good venue and character physical descriptions interspersed:
"He had a good forehead, with a particularly large development just above the eyebrows; fine intellectual gifts, no doubt, which he had educated to this profitable end; being famous for nothing but gin-cocktails, and commanding a fair salary by his one accomplishment."

The physical beauty of the women was way over-emphasized and, what was revealed by their actions, might make one wonder if they were worthy of the equal rights pursued.

I felt no connection with any of the characters and only the slightest interest in solving the mystery
of The Veiled Lady, certainly a discordant plot entry. ( )