Arthur Mervyn
by Charles Brockden Brown
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Description
Settle in for a cozy night of reading with this gothic classic from Charles Brockden Brown. The tale follows protagonist Arthur Mervyn through a hellishly difficult period in his life, marred by illness, tragedy, mistakes, and a thorny romantic entanglement. Will Mervyn emerge from this period with his faculties intact, or will he plunge further into the despair that surrounds him?.
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Member Reviews
Arthur Mervyn is the story of a young man of about 18 as he makes his way in the world during the perilous plague year of 1793. While reading this book, at first I thought the main narrator, Arthur Mervyn himself, is an unreliable storyteller and something of a scoundrel, then, in the second part, he matures and discovers charity and love. The heavy eighteenth-century prose makes this somewhat of a slog to read, but the reader's careful attention is rewarded by a tender story of growing up in difficult times.
Set in Philadelphia and Baltimore and written in an antique, stately and flowery style this novel surprised me by being very readable, interesting and even touching. Was the great American novel already written before the 19th century ever turned?
Flighty drama.
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Fiction (Mostly) in Selective Bibliography of American Literature 1775-1900
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Author Information
36+ Works 2,561 Members
Charles Brockden Brown was born on January 17, 1771 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After he completed his schooling in 1787, he began apprenticing at the law offices of Alexander Wilcocks and pursued literary interests. When he was 18, he published his first literary works: the Rhapsodist sketches, which appeared anonymously in the Columbian show more Magazine, and a poem entitled An Inscription for General Washington's Tomb Stone, which appeared in the State Gazette of North Carolina. In 1793, he abandoned the law to attempt a life of letters. Within four years, between 1789 and 1801, he published six novels: Wieland, Ormand, Arthur Mervyn, Edgar Huntly, Clara Howard and Jane Talbot. He died of tuberculosis on February 22, 1810. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Arthur Mervyn, or, memoirs of the year 1793
- Original publication date
- 1799
- Important places
- Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 145
- Popularity
- 223,139
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (2.68)
- Languages
- English, German, Spanish, Tajik
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 37
- ASINs
- 6
