Amazon.com description: Product Description: Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American author that contributed significantly to the dark romanticism genre. Hawthorne was the great grandson of John Hathorne, one of the judges in the Salem witch trials. To hide the shame Nathaniel added the "w" to his last name. Many of Hawthorne's works are set in the New England area and feature the moral allegories found in the time of the Puritans. The Blithedale Romance is a classic novel about a community in the woods and a romance gone tragically wrong. The book is notable for its critique of the New England utopian community during Hawthorne's time.