Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale

Alan Axelrod

Published by University of Texas Press 1983

Charles Brockden Brown

An American Tale

Alan Axelrod

https://doi.org/10.7560/710764

Overview
Contents

About this book

Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale is the first comprehensive literary, biographical, and cultural study of the novelist whom critic Leslie Fiedler has dubbed "the inventor of the American writer."

The author of Wieland, Arthur Mervyn, Ormond, and Edgar Huntly, Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) is considered the first American professional author. He introduced Indian characters into American fiction. His keen interest in character delineation and abnormal psychology anticipates the stories of Poe, Hawthorne, and later masters of the psychological novel.

Brown was eager to establish for himself an American identity as a writer, to become what Crèvecoeur called "the new man in the New World." It is especially this intimate identification of writer with country that makes Brown a telling precursor of our most characteristic authors from Poe, Hawthorne, and Cooper to Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner.

To understand its significance, Brown's work must be examined as both art and artifact. Accordingly, Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale is literary history as well as criticism, embued with insights into a writer's sources and influences and the psychology of literary composition. It is also a fascinating examination of a nation's emotional and intellectual impact on a young man in search of his identity as creative artist.

Author / Editor information

Alan Axelrod is a historian and the author of numerous books.

Reviews

... the best book ever written on Brown. The writing is lively and mature throughout. the scholarship very impressive.

— Norman Grabo

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
A Note on Texts and References Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN
I. Irreconcilable Oppositions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
II. Metaphysic Wilderness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
III. New World Genesis, or the Old Transformed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
IV Great Plans: A Foreword to Ormond and Arthur Mervyn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
V. Utopian Romance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
VI. The Rise of Arthur Mervyn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
VII. From Oedipus to Faust: An American Tale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 224

eBook

Published: September 17, 2013
ISBN: 9780292758896