I would just like to say that the switch from the Transcendentalist's heavy critical writing to Blithedale Romance is a welcome one. True, it is a novel written in the Victorian style, with descriptions galore and characters that nobody quite believes, but compared to the social criticism that we've been perusing it's as light as Shel Silverstien.
That being said, the novel poses a different kind of problem. Analyzing the social criticisms was straightforward, you form an opinion on the reading, you find the meaning in the text or in how texts relate, and you push forward. But the novel takes no stance, and even if it did, even if Nathanial Hawthorne did, would it matter? Do we even care about the author's opinion in this case?
What are we trying to find out from reading this novel?
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