# The Hotel explained — The Blithedale Romance

> Chapter companion for The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

## What happens

Coverdale returns to the city and takes a room in a hotel, where he reflects on his recent experiences at Blithedale. He observes the backside of fashionable houses from his window, contemplating the contrast between public facades and private realities. He feels a sense of dislocation and nostalgia, as Blithedale seems both distant and dreamlike. He spends his time in lazy contemplation, smoking cigars and reading a dull novel, while listening to the sounds of the city.

## Themes in this chapter

### Idealism vs. Reality

Coverdale contrasts the idealized rural life at Blithedale with the gritty, artificial reality of the city, questioning the solidity of his past experiences.

### Nature vs. Society

Coverdale observes nature (trees, birds, a cat) in the midst of the city, reflecting on how the natural world persists within urban conventionalisms.

### Secrecy and Identity

Coverdale notes that the front of a house is a 'veil and a concealment,' while the back reveals 'realities,' highlighting the theme of hidden truths.

## Character check-ins

### Miles Coverdale

The narrator and protagonist, who has returned to the city and is staying in a hotel, reflecting on his time at Blithedale and observing the urban scene from his window.

## Key lines

> The posterior aspect of any old farmhouse, behind which a railroad has unexpectedly been opened, is so different from that looking upon the immemorial highway, that the spectator gets new ideas of rural life and individuality in the puff or two of steam-breath which shoots him past the premises.

The back view of a farmhouse, now exposed by a new railroad, reveals a different and more truthful perspective on rural life than the front facing the old road.

_Coverdale reflects on how the hidden sides of buildings and lives reveal deeper truths._

> I bless God for these good folks! thought I to myself. I have not seen a prettier bit of nature, in all my summer in the country, than they have shown me here, in a rather stylish boardinghouse.

Coverdale feels grateful for the simple, natural family scene he witnesses in the boardinghouse, which he finds more genuine than anything he saw at Blithedale.

_Coverdale finds unexpected beauty and authenticity in an urban domestic scene._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_blithedale_romance_se/chapters/xvii-the-hotel
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_blithedale_romance_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_blithedale_romance_se/chapters