The Blithedale Romance is Nathaniel Hawthorne"s third major romance and "the lightest, the brightest, the liveliest" of Hawthorne"s "unhumorous fictions." It takes place in the utopian community of Blithedale where Miles Coverdale embarks on a quest for the betterment of the world through the agrarian lifestyle and is based on Hawthorne"s recollections of Brook Farm, a short-lived agricultural and educational commune where Hawthorne lived Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist writing centers on New England, many featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration and centering on the inherent evil and sin of humanity.