Charles Brockden Brown : Three Gothic Novels : Wieland / Arthur Mervyn / Edgar Huntly (Library of America)
Written on February 16, 2008
Charles Brockden Brown : Three Gothic Novels : Wieland / Arthur Mervyn / Edgar Huntly (Library of America) Prefiguring the work of Poe, Hawthorne, and Faulkner, as well as the entire tradition of American noir and horror, Brockden Brown was America’s first professional novelist. This volume collects his most significant works: “Wieland; or The Transformation” (1798), about a religious fanatic preyed upon by a sinister ventriloquist; “Arthur Mervyn; Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793″ (1799), with its devastating depiction of a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia; and “Edgar Huntly; or Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker” (1799), which recasts traditional Gothic themes in the American wilderness.
Customer Review: Wieland . . . a wonderfully written story
Out of the three novels, I have only read Wieland, but if the other two are as good as this one, I would definitely be willing to read them.
Wieland is one of my all-time favorite books. This novel looks at how religion, the unexplainable (or seemingly unexplainable), and madness affect ordinary people. There are no monsters lurking in the shadows, but the novel does look at how people deal with horror in “real” situations.
Customer Review: Dark Patriarch
I was pleased to see that the editorial review of this (typically gorgeous) Library of America series entry stole my breath. Brockden Brown’s fascinating and brutal gothic novels are the true foundation of what’s dark about American literature. Perhaps even more irresponsible than Poe in his fascination with the grotesque (spontaneous combustion, anyone?), Brockden Brown long anticipates Poe and Freud (and Faulkner and Jackson and …) in his bleak explorations of our most terrible fears, and our worst secrets. Without scenes like the axe murder in “Wieland,” would we have King’s (or Kubrick’s) “The Shining”? Impossible. Let’s hope that the Library of America will add a Volume 2 to this one, including Brockden Brown’s lesser known (and impossible to find) works like “Ormond.”
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Filed in: Goth Lifestyle.
