Ormond: Or the Secret Witness (Charles Brockden Novels) (v. 2) [Hardcover]

Charles Brockden Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1983 | Series: Charles Brockden Novels (Book 2)

Brown is often called the first American novelist. Originally published in 1799, Ormond was inspired by enlightenment philosophers and Gothic writers. The novel engages with many of the period's popular debates about women's education, marriage, and the morality of violence, while the plot revolves around the Gothic themes of seduction, murder, incest, impersonation, romance and disease. Set in post-revolutionary Philadelphia, Ormond examines the prospects of the struggling nation by tracing the experiences of Constantia, a young virtuous republican who struggles to survive when her father's business is ruined by a confidence man, and her friends and neighbors are killed by a yellow fever epidemic.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In her marvelous new edition of Ormond, Mary Chapman has given scholars, teachers and students of Charles Brockden Brown what they have longed for: an affordable paperback edition complete with a trenchant, historically-textured introduction to Brown's least known, and most underrated major novel. Chapman's exhaustive labour in both the classic and contemporary criticism of the early American novel, coupled with her thorough knowledge of the philosophical and political pamphlet literature of the early national period, afford the modern reader the very sort of 'thick description' so often lost in considering the work of America's first 'professional' novelist." (Julia Stern ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Brown is often called the first American novelist. Originally published in 1799, Ormond was inspired by enlightenment philosophers and Gothic writers. The novel engages with many of the period's popular debates about women's education, marriage, and the morality of violence, while the plot revolves around the Gothic themes of seduction, murder, incest, impersonation, romance and disease. Set in post-revolutionary Philadelphia, Ormond examines the prospects of the struggling nation by tracing the experiences of Constantia, a young virtuous republican who struggles to survive when her father's business is ruined by a confidence man, and her friends and neighbors are killed by a yellow fever epidemic. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 478 pages
• Publisher: Kent State Univ Pr; Bct edition (February 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873382773
• ISBN-13: 978-0873382779
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,716,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Get To Know the Father of American Fiction, November 22, 2001

By 

Neil Meyer (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ormond (Broadview Literary Texts Series) (Paperback)

Although this is not Brown's greatest work (Edgar Huntly and Weiland are superior) it is still a compelling work. Brown has taken the Gothic genre and manipulated it's stock images and characters to create unqiue worlds. The novel starts off slowly, but builds as Constantia unwittingly comes under the influence of Ormond. We are never certain whether we are steeped in a stereotypical Gothic world or perhaps uncomfortable close to reality.
Typical of Brown, the ending is deceptively complete. As an author attempting to understand that anxieties and fears of the New Republic, Brown addresses an American readership with themes that are still compelling today. The limitations of reason, the limitations of morality, and the place of faith in our lives.
Brown's four Gothic novels should be read together, to get a complete sense of his concerns for the nation, but the Library of America thoughtlessly left this novel out with their printing of Brown's works. One can only hope that with the continuing interest in Brown's fiction this novel will become available to the reading public.