Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist (Penguin Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Charles Brockden Brown (Author), Jay Fliegelman (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: April 26, 2005

Set in rural Pennyslvania in the 1760s, this tale of horror and mystery is based on an actual case of a New York farmer who murdered his family. The author employs Gothic devices and sensational features such as spontaneous combustion, ventriloquism, and religious fanaticism. Fiendish Carwin uses his influence over Clara Wieland and her family, destroying the order and authority of the small community in which they live. The novel examines some fundamental issues crucial to the survival of democracy in the new American republic. The unfinished sequel, Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist, traces Carwin's career as a follower of the utopist Ludloe.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (April 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140390790
• ISBN-13: 978-0140390797
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disrupting the Empire of Rationality, October 26, 2000

By 

mp - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Charles Brockden Brown's first novel, 1798's "Wieland," is an outstanding, riveting work fraught with anxieties over the new American nation and its enlightened foundations. Set sometime between 1763 and 1775, "Wieland" is narrated by Clara Wieland, and concerns the fate of her family and friends - her brother Theodore, and their friends Pleyel and Catharine. Clara is a woman born and raised into a secure world of enlightenment rationality. She is a model of Wollstonecraftian feminism - educated, astute, and benevolent.

Clara's narrative begins with a recitation of her family history - her Anglo-German roots and an account of the family's migration to the American colonies, to wit, Pennsylvania. Following an account of her father's religious enthusiasm and apparent spontaneous combustion, Clara shows herself and her brother, who equally partition the family estate, living in perfectly rational harmony. The estate of Mettingen is an enlightened utopia, where the Wielands and the Pleyels discuss literature and virtue, completely oblivious to the outside world. Though Philadelphia is not far away, the concerns of the city, of commerce, and of politics are not theirs.

Their ordered world is soon upset by the manifestation of mysterious disembodied voices around the estate. Shortly thereafter, Carwin, a rustic stranger with remarkable intelligence and a shrouded past, enters their isolated society.

In "Wieland," Brown calls into question the enlightened basis of the still new American government. With fresh knowledge of the failure of the French Revolution, subsequent uprisings in Ireland, and an intense fascination with the radical political philosophies of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, "Wieland" powerfully engages and synthesizes the currents of its time. With all the trappings of psychological gothic trauma, Brown, a resident of a nation conceived in liberty, asks whether the ideological break between a rational new world and a traditional, superstitious old world actually changes anything in human nature.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book by an amazingly creative author., March 6, 2002

By 

J. W. Snyder (Oconomowoc, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

I am impressed with the reviews on this site because they are so deservedly glowing. I read this book when I was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin Madison, and was amazed at the creative genius this man had, as well as the destructive power of critical dismissal. Given, he may not have written the most perfectly structured novel in history, but give the guy a break. He was a professional author from a time when, even if you were a best seller, it only paid just enough to get by. He had to hurry his output to keep up with his grumbling stomach. However, as far as pure entertainment value, and heart stopping plot twists he is second to none. This man should definitely be read more and given more credit as the grand-father of gothic writing. Given, he is nowhere near Poe, but who is? He is far ahead of his time (late 18th century) in psychological exploration and X-files-esque ponderings. If you want a book that will entertain, frighten, and shock you look no further. I also highly recommended Memoirs of a Sleepwalker if you liked this novel and are looking for something along the same lines.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!, August 28, 2010

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Lauren Hines (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book, the first American novel and also the first "gothic" novel is interesting and informative.