Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Title: The Blithedale Romance
Description: London, Chapman and Hall, 1852 . First edition. Cloth. The scarce two volume first UK edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel about life on a utopian farming commune. The scarce first UK edition of this work, complete in two volumes.This edition of 'The Blithdale Romance' is the true first, preceding the US publication by about a week. This was the case as Ticknor and Fields of Boston paused to allow Chapman and Hall to publish first, which protected the English copyright of the novel.With a former owner's inscription to the front free endpaper of volume II.Hawthorne's novel is set in a utopian farming commune, based on the utopian living experiment Brook Farm, of which Hawthorne was a founding member, and where he lived in 1841. The novel dramatizes the conflict between the commune's ideals and the members' private desires and romantic rivalries. In the publisher's original cloth bindings. Front board of volume I detached, but present. Losses of cloth to back strip head and tail, and joints. Mark to volume I back strip tail. Rear joint of volume I starting, but firmly held. Joints of volume II starting, and a touch tender. Evidence of bookplate removal to front pastedowns. Inscription to front free endpaper of volume II. Internally, firmly bound. Pages a touch age toned, with light handling marks. Good Only . Ill.: None. Good Only .

Keywords: The Blithedale Romance Brook Farm commune Transcendentalism Brook Farm None


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