The Real Blithedale Romance: The Love and Marriage of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody

By LifeCaps

Rising from relative obscurity, Nathaniel Hawthorne became one of the most celebrate and original authors of his generation. Along the way, he crossed paths with a young woman of equally remarkable talents. Others may have considered Sophia Peabody an invalid destined for a spinster’s life, but Hawthorne saw someone special.

This is the story of their relationship.

LifeCaps is an imprint of BookCapsTM Study Guides. With each book, a lesser known or sometimes forgotten life is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to literature and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly to see our newest books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookCaps
• Release date: Jun 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301846795

Book preview

LifeCaps Presents:

The Real Blithedale Romance

The Love and Marriage of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody

By Paul Brody

By BookCaps Study Guides/LifeCaps

© 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc.

Published at SmashWords

About LifeCaps

LifeCaps is an imprint of BookCaps™ Study Guides. With each book, a lesser known or sometimes forgotten life is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to literature and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly (www.bookcaps.com) to see our newest books.

Introduction

Rising from relative obscurity, Nathaniel Hawthorne became one of the most celebrated and original authors of his generation. Along the way, he crossed paths with a young woman of equally remarkable talents. Others may have considered Sophia Peabody an invalid destined for a spinster’s life, but Hawthorne saw someone special. Unfortunately, the United States in the nineteenth century was not yet ready to applaud a woman’s talents. Instead, Sophia was a source of hope and strength for Nathaniel when circumstances seemed at their most dire. The family moved within intellectual circles but never gave in to fads and fashions. Their three surviving children—Julian, Rose and Una—were each remarkable in their own way.

Chapter 1: Early Life of Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne (originally Hathorne) was born, the son of a sea captain on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. The coincidence of his birthday with the nation’s Independence Day was a source of boyish inspiration and pride throughout his lifetime. Hawthorne’s birthday was by no means his only connection with a deeper, richer history, however. His family roots went all the way back to the colonial settlement at Plymouth. One of his ancestors was even a notorious judge at the Salem witch trials—which motivated Nathaniel to alter his name soon after he come of age. He wanted no obvious connection to the bloody work of Judge Hathorne, although the misdeeds of his ancestors almost certainly worked their way into his fiction in one form or another.

In 1804, Salem was still a vibrant seaport, a rival to both New York and Boston, with salty captains of merchant vessels and strange-looking folks from distant lands a common sight throughout the town. The Hathorne family, however, was beginning to decline in importance, having once been prominent leaders of the community.

Nathaniel’s parents, Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clark Manning, had two other healthy children: Elizabeth (Ebe), born in 1802, and Mary Louise, born in 1808. The year of his younger sister’s birth was fateful—the senior Nathaniel came down with yellow fever while on a voyage and died in Surinam. It was April 1808 before family had word, probably many months after the fact of his death.

In the wake of Nathaniel Senior’s untimely death, the Manning uncles (brothers of the widow Elizabeth) each contributed in some way to the wellbeing of the three Hathorne children. For one thing, Elizabeth was not particularly assertive or outgoing, so it was natural that she leaned on the advice and support of her male family