How long does it take to read The Blithedale Romance?
The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne takes about 4 hours 11 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 11 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1852. 228 pages, about 62,700 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 58 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 11 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 37 minutes |
The page count is the median across 571 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
A superb depiction of a utopian community that cannot survive the individual passions of its members. In language that is suggestive and often erotic, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a tale of failed possibilities and multiple personal betrayals as he explores the contrasts between what his characters espouse and what they actually experience in an 'ideal' community. A theme of unrealized sexual possibilities serves as a counterpoint to the other failures at Blithedale: class and sex distinctions are not eradicated, and communal work on the farm proves personally unrewarding and economically disastrous. Based in part on Hawthorne's own experiences at Brook Farm, an experimental socialist community, The Blithedale Romance is especially timely in light of renewed interest in self-sufficient and other cooperative societies.
Subjects: Fiction, Communal living, Farm life, Collective farms, History, Utopias
