The Blithedale Romance

By Hawthorne, Nathaniel

Book Id: WPLBN0000629512
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 303.62 KB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	The Blithedale Romance
Author:	Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Literature, Literature & thought, Writing.
Collections:	Blackmask Online Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Blackmask Online


Citation APA MLA Chicago Hawthorne, N. (n.d.). The Blithedale Romance. Retrieved from http://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Excerpt: OLD MOODIE The evening before my departure for Blithedale, I was returning to my bachelor apartments, after attending the wonderful exhibition of the Veiled Lady, when an elderly man of rather shabby appearance met me in an obscure part of the street. ?Mr. Coverdale,? said he softly, ?can I speak with you a moment?? As I have casually alluded to the Veiled Lady, it may not be amiss to mention, for the benefit of such of my readers as are unacquainted with her now forgotten celebrity, that she was a phenomenon in the mesmeric line; one of the earliest that had indicated the birth of a new science, or the revival of an old humbug. Since those times her sisterhood have grown too numerous to attract much individual notice; nor, in fact, has any one of them come before the public under such skilfully contrived circumstances of stage effect as those which at once mystified and illuminated the remarkable performances of the lady in question. Nowadays, in the management of his ?subject,? ?clairvoyant,? or ?medium,? the exhibitor affects the simplicity and openness of scientific experiment; and even if he profess to tread a step or two across the boundaries of the spiritual world, yet carries with him the laws of our actual life and extends them over his preternatural conquests. Twelve or fifteen years ago, on the contrary, all the arts of mysterious arrangement, of picturesque disposition, and artistically contrasted light and shade, were made available, in order to set the apparent miracle in the strongest attitude of opposition to ordinary facts. In the case of the Veiled Lady, moreover, the interest of the spectator was further wrought up by the enigma of her identity, and an absurd rumor (probably set afloat by the exhibitor, and at one time very prevalent) that a beautiful young lady, of family and fortune, was enshrouded within the misty drapery of the veil. It was white, with somewhat of a subdued silver sheen, like the sunny side of a cloud; and, falling over the wearer from head to foot, was supposed to insulate her from the material world, from time and space, and to endow her with many of the privileges of a disembodied spirit.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents: The Blithedale Romance, 1 -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1 -- I. OLD MOODIE, 1 -- II. BLITHEDALE, 3 -- III. A KNOT OF DREAMERS, 5 -- IV. THE SUPPER?TABLE, 9 -- V. UNTIL BEDTIME, 13 -- VI. COVERDALE'S SICK?CHAMBER, 16 -- VII. THE CONVALESCENT, 20 -- VIII. A MODERN ARCADIA, 24 -- IX. HOLLINGSWORTH, ZENOBIA, PRISCILLA, 29 -- X. A VISITOR FROM TOWN, 35 -- XI. THE WOOD?PATH, 38 -- XII. COVERDALE'S HERMITAGE, 42 -- XIII. ZENOBIA'S LEGEND, 46 -- XIV. ELIOT'S PULPIT, 51 -- XV. A CRISIS, 56 -- XVI. LEAVE?TAKINGS, 60 -- XVII. THE HOTEL, 63 -- XVIII. THE BOARDING?HOUSE, 66 -- XIX. ZENOBIA'S DRAWING?ROOM, 69 -- XX. THEY VANISH, 73 -- XXI. AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE, 75 -- XXII. FAUNTLEROY, 78 -- XXIII. A VILLAGE HALL, 83 -- XXIV. THE MASQUERADERS, 87 -- XXV. THE THREE TOGETHER, 91 -- XXVI. ZENOBIA AND COVERDALE, 95 -- XXVII. MIDNIGHT, 98 -- XXVIII. BLITHEDALE PASTURE, 102 -- XXIX. MILES COVERDALE'S CONFESSION, 105