The Complete Writings of Nathaiel Hawthorne (Volume 8)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1900. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... INTRODUCTORY NOTE In the late autumn of 1851 the Hawthornes moved from Lenox to West Newton, Massachusetts, where Mrs. Hawthorne's sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, was then living, and there they stayed till the following summer, when Mr. Hawthorne bought the estate in Concord, which he named The Wayside, and which became the family home, and from which the great romancer was finally borne to his grave. It was in this winter 0 DEGREES851-1852 that he wrote his third romance, The Blithedale Romance, at first named by him Hollingsworth, from its central character. Hawthorne's Preface to this book is the fullest statement which he has left of his attitude toward the work, and his design in it, but there are one or two other references which he makes to it during or after its writing. Apparently he did little more than plan it while he was in Berkshire. He did not work readily in summer, and when he had rapidly prepared the Wonder-Book, he rested from his writing labors, uncertain, moreover, whether he should stay on in Berkshire, or move away. He did not like the mountain life, and detested the climate. But he was meditating on his next book, and notes in his diary that Mr. Tappan, his neighbor, came in one evening with three or four volumes of Fourier's works, which he wished to borrow with a view to his next romance. He had written just before to his friend W. B. Pike, after speaking of The House of the Seven Gables: When I write another romance, I shall take the Community for a subject, and shall give some of my experiences and observations at Brook Farm. After the book was published, he wrote to his friend Bridge: Perhaps you have seen Blithedale before this time. I doubt whether you will like it very well; but it has met with good success, and has brought me -- ...