The language of this story, as well as the narrator's (& author's?) need to share every little detail, made this story a slow read. The story is a little skewed since the narrator gives every detail about Latin pronunciations or plays the group puts on, but glosses over the scary parts of who's hiding in her closet. The ending is a deus ex machina, and a major letdown as far as whodunit goes. I guess this can be looked past, since it IS the first American mystery, but it's not worth the read outside of class. If I hadn't been reading it for a class, and therefore discussing every little aspect, I wouldn't have had a clue of what was going on, and would have been even angrier at trooping through the whole book for such a crappy ending. ( )

This is a fascinating, though admittedly strange, tale that I read as an undergraduate. It is chock full of atmosphere and suspense, though the plot device that drives the work seems pretty flimsy. If you can get beyond that point, the book is an interesting study in gothic writing from an American author. ( )

The ending of Wieland is a MAJOR cop-out for anyone who is reading the book for fun. If you're reading it to analyze it in relationship to its social context, then the ending (along with the rest of the book) says a lot of interesting things about what ideas were in the air at that time, but as an ending for a seeming horror/supernatural story, it is just stupid, implausible, and not even all that thought-provoking. ( )

One of the earliest American novels. Still worth reading. A bizarre pre-Gothic tale including spontaneous combustion, sleep-walking, and muuuurder. ( )