The Blithedale romance

Miles Ceverdale, the narrator, flees the city for Blithedale Far, where he and a group of like-minded companions intended to begin reforming a dissipated America. But the group - Coverdale the prurient bachelor, Hollingsworth the furious philanthropist, Zenobia the voluptuous feminist, Priscilla the vulnerable seamstress - are a powerful mix of competing desires and drives, and the idealism which inspires them finds little satisfaction in hard farm labour. Instead of dropping bad old habits and changing the world, the members of a community individually pursue egoistical paths which must lead ultimately to tragedy. This edition also consists of Introduction, Notes on the Text, Bibliography, A Chronology of the Author and Explanatory Notes.