Wieland, Or the Transformation

Wieland, Or the Transformation PDF Author: Charles Brockden Brown
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description

Wieland, Or the Transformation

Wieland, Or the Transformation PDF Author: Charles Brockden Brown
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


Wieland; or The Transformation, and Memoirs of Carwin, The Biloquist

Wieland; or The Transformation, and Memoirs of Carwin, The Biloquist PDF Author: Charles Brockden Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192669435
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
One of the earliest American novels, Wieland (1798) is a thrilling tale of suspense and intrigue set in rural Pennyslvania in the 1760s. Based on an actual case of a New York farmer who murdered his family, the novel employs Gothic devices and sensational elements such as spontaneous combustion, ventriloquism, and religious fanaticism. The plot turns on the charming but diabolical intruder Carwin, who exercises his power over the narrator, Clara Wieland, and her family, destroying the order and authority of the small community in which they live. Underlying the mystery and horror, however, is a profound examination of the human mind's capacity for rational judgement. The text also explores some of the most important issues vital to the survival of democracy in the new American republic. Brown further considers power and manipulation in his unfinished sequel, Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist, which traces Carwin's career as a disciple of the utopist Ludloe. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Memoirs of Stephen Calvert

Memoirs of Stephen Calvert PDF Author: Charles Brockden Brown
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810), America's first professional man of letters, is remembered in literary history primarily for his novels. He wrote Gothic romances set in America, and they constitute the beginning of a tradition later taken up by such well-known American authors as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is curious that one of Brown's novels, the «Memoirs of Stephen Calvert», has consistently been neglected as part of his novelistic oeuvre, both by the editors of his writings and by the critics. This edition represents the first modern as well as the first separate publication of the «Memoirs of Stephen Calvert». It is a novel typical of Brown's literary preoccupations, and therefore deserves attention within the framework of current Brown criticism. By supplying a text closest to Brown's intentions, an introductory essay, and textual notes, this new edition is meant to lay the groundwork for a fresh evaluation of the «Memoirs of Stephen Calvert».

Edgar Huntly, Or, Memoirs of a Sleep-walker

Edgar Huntly, Or, Memoirs of a Sleep-walker PDF Author: Charles Brockden Brown
Publisher: Kent State University Press
ISBN: 9780873383424
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Often described as a "gothic novel," this is a classic American tale of mystery and murder with exciting and dramatic plot twists. Charles Brockden Brown is the most frequently studied and republished practitioner of the "early American novel," or the US novel between 1789 and roughly 1820. This volume contains a critical edition of Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly, the third of his novels to be published in 1799 and the first to deal with the American wilderness. The basis of the text is the first edition, printed and published by Hugh Maxwell in Philadelphia late in the year, but the "Fragment" printed independently in Brown's Monthly Magazine earlier in 1799 supplies some readings in Chapters 17-20. The Historical Essay, which follows the text, covers matters of composition, publication, historical background, and literary evaluation, and the Textual Essay discusses the transmission of the text, choice of copy-text, and editorial policy. A general textual statement for the entire edition appears in Volume I of the series.

Female Quixotism

Female Quixotism PDF Author: Tabitha Tenney
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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The Power of Sympathy

The Power of Sympathy PDF Author: William Hill Brown
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
ISBN: 1513273671
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description
The Power of Sympathy (1789) is a novel by American author William Hill Brown. Considered the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy is a work of sentimental fiction which explores the lessons of the Enlightenment on the virtues of rational thought. A story of forbidden romance, seduction, and incest, Brown’s novel is based on the real-life scandal of Perez Morton and Fanny Apthorp, a New England brother- and sister-in-law who struck up an affair that ended in suicide and infamy. Inspired by their tragedy, and hoping to write a novel which captured the need for rational education in the newly formed United States of America, Brown wrote and published The Power of Sympathy anonymously in Boston. The novel, narrated in a series of letters, is the story of Thomas Harrington. He falls for the local beauty Harriot Fawcet, initially hoping to make her his mistress. But when she rejects him, his friend Jack Worthy suggests that he attempt to court and then propose to her, which is the honorable and lawful choice. Thomas’ overly sentimental mind is persuaded by Jack’s unflinching reason, and so he decides to pursue Harriot once more. This time, he is successful, and the two eventually become engaged, but their happiness soon fades when Mrs. Eliza Holmes, a family friend of the Harringtons, reveals the true nature of Harriot’s identity. As the secrets of Mr. Harrington—Thomas’ father—are revealed, the couple are forced to choose between the morals and laws of society and the passionate love they share. The Power of Sympathy is a moving work of tragedy and romance with a pointed message about the need for education in the recently founded United States. Despite borrowing from the British and European traditions of sentimental fiction and the epistolary novel, Brown’s work is a distinctly American masterpiece worthy of our continued respect and attention. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Truth's Ragged Edge

Truth's Ragged Edge PDF Author: Philip F. Gura
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429951346
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
From the acclaimed cultural historian Philip F. Gura comes Truth's Ragged Edge, a comprehensive and original history of the American novel's first century. Grounded in Gura's extensive consideration of the diverse range of important early novels, not just those that remain widely read today, this book recovers many long-neglected but influential writers—such as the escaped slave Harriet Jacobs, the free black Philadelphian Frank J. Webb, and the irrepressible John Neal—to paint a complete and authoritative portrait of the era. Gura also gives us the key to understanding what sets the early novel apart, arguing that it is distinguished by its roots in "the fundamental religiosity of American life." Our nation's pioneering novelists, it turns out, wrote less in the service of art than of morality. This history begins with a series of firsts: the very first American novel, William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy, published in 1789; the first bestsellers, Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple and Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette, novels that were, like Brown's, cautionary tales of seduction and betrayal; and the first native genre, religious tracts, which were parables intended to instruct the Christian reader. Gura shows that the novel did not leave behind its proselytizing purpose, even as it evolved. We see Catharine Maria Sedgwick in the 1820s conceiving of A New-England Tale as a critique of Puritanism's harsh strictures, as well as novelists pushing secular causes: George Lippard's The Quaker City, from 1844, was a dark warning about growing social inequality. In the next decade certain writers—Hawthorne and Melville most famously—began to depict interiority and doubt, and in doing so nurtured a broader cultural shift, from social concern to individualism, from faith in a distant god to faith in the self. Rich in subplots and detail, Gura's narrative includes enlightening discussions of the technologies that modernized publishing and allowed for the printing of novels on a mass scale, and of the lively cultural journals and literary salons of early nineteenth-century New York and Boston. A book for the reader of history no less than the reader of fiction, Truth's Ragged Edge—the title drawn from a phrase in Melville, about the ambiguity of truth—is an indispensable guide to the fascinating, unexpected origins of the American novel.

Charles Brockden Brown

Charles Brockden Brown PDF Author: Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 0708324223
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This study of the works of late eighteenth-century American Gothic author Charles Brockden Brown argues that Brown was a seminal figure in the development of four forms of Gothic fiction: the Frontier Gothic, the Urban Gothic, the Psychological Gothic, and the Female Gothic.

The Museum of Dr. Moses

The Museum of Dr. Moses PDF Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156033428
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
In these and other stories, bestselling author Oates explores with bloodcurdling insight the ties that bind--or worse.

The Autobiography and Other Writings

The Autobiography and Other Writings PDF Author: Benjamin Franklin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451469887
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
A comprehensive and insightful compilation of Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography and other essays which offers an in-depth look into the life of America’s most fascinating Founding Father. Benjamin Franklin was a true Renaissance man: writer, publisher, scientist, inventor, diplomat, and politician. During his long life, he offered advice on attaining wealth, organized public institutions, contributed to the birth of a nation, and negotiated with foreign powers to ensure his country’s survival. Through the words of the elder statesman himself, The Autobiography and Other Writings presents a remarkable insight into the man and his accomplishments. Additional writings from Benjamin Franklin’s wife and son provide a more intimate portrait of the husband and father who became a legend in his own time. Edited by L. Jesse Lemich With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson and an Afterword by Carla Mulford