The Blithedale Romance belongs to two main genres: romance and literary fiction. Hawthorne called his novels "romances" in order to differentiate them from other books. The difference lies in the fact that novels must be faithful to the possible and probable course of human events. By contrast, Hawthorne claimed that romances— which deal with the truth of the human heart—can feature extraordinary circumstances. Romance authors may take liberties with plot, setting, and characterization in order to make their point. For instance, Hawthorne justified writing characters who dabble in the supernatural, because he did so in service of representing truths about the human condition. Revealing such truths, in his mind, outweighed the importance of strict factual accuracy. Blithedale is Hawthorne's third major romance.
It is also referred to as literary fiction because it has sophisticated language, complex sentence structures, deep questions about universal human truths, and philosophical themes of socialism and the human potential to create a utopia. It also emphasizes style, character, and theme over plot. While the novel has an exciting storyline, the author's emphasis remains on the psychological dynamics among the inhabitants of Blithedale, as well as the philosophical implications of putting humans in a socialist utopian experiment.
