Lauren Weatherly

Charles Brockden Brown: The Other Gothic Author

          Before coming into this class, I had heard of this author once or twice, but had never read anything by him. My interest in the Gothic is my pastime while in school, so of course I jumped at the chance to become introduced to another author in my favorite genre. Before doing research for this post, I had already read a moderate amount of his novel Edgar Huntly, and I have to say, hats off to this absolutely wonderful man! Not only is his story wild, twisted, and contains some of the most beautiful language I have ever read, but he is an American author, something which is becoming more new and exciting to me in branching out in the Gothic focus. My background and familiarity with this genre mainly rests in Europe and its authors, so it is quite nice to find another author equally as talented and not overrated like Edgar Allen Poe a little closer to home. The main focus of my research surrounds biographical information on Brown’s life, works, and progression as an author.

          The first website I came across included some basic biographical information about Brown and his writing. I also discovered the possible reason I had never heard of this wonderful author before entering this class, information which I confirmed across several sources, that Brown is undergoing a type of renaissance of his works in the last few decades leading me to believe he is more popular now than he ever was. By perusing the website http://www.brockdenbrownsociety.ucf.edu/brown/default.htm, I learned that he was “born to intellectual Quaker parents in 1771 and trained as a lawyer. Brown was one of the most important literary innovators of his age. His mind was molded in that last moment of the late Enlightenment when the desire to master the arts and the natural sciences was one, and knowledge was freely disseminated.” Brown also has a long history in writing, not only novels, but he was an apt editor and journalist as well. I also thought it was interesting to discover that even though he was born and raised a Quaker, he showed great dissent for his birth religion and questioned it greatly. Evidence of his distaste for religion and his turmoil with the concept can be found in his novel, Wieland. Much of this changed, however, when he married his wife, “Elizabeth Linn, sister of Presbyterian minister John Linn, in 1803, [and] … it also marks a change in his philosophical outlook from religious questioner to orthodox Christian.” Throughout Brown’s life, he was an avid writer and showed interest not only in fiction, where he greatly excelled and is famous for, but was also prominent in Literary Journals and magazines, as well as writing political works expressing his views on government, foreign policy, and women’s rights. He branched out quite a bit during his lifetime, but his novels are his most famous pursuit to this day.

          The next source I found great interest in and information from about Brown’s writing and style is a critical essay by Donald A. Ringe. Right off the bat, Ringe comments that “a major characteristic of Brown's fiction is its intense intellectuality. Though Wieland and Ormond may both be viewed as tales of seduction, and Wieland and Edgar Huntly as tales of terror, all three carry a weight of thematic meaning not commonly found in the sentimental or Gothic romance.” Ringe goes on to state that Brown has a specific technique with his writing that forces the reader to actively think about the actions of the characters and the plot, while at the same time, offer no answers or assumptions of his own. He leaves it up to us to decide what is going on, and while this may frustrate the readers who expect all the answers and an explanation in the ending, it excites and entices other readers who like to think outside the box. Each novel has a theme which the reader must discover to understand the psychology of each work. “Sensationalist psychology, theories of education, and the sources of mania are major concerns in Wieland; utopian theories, the proper training for women, and the place of religion in education in Ormond; and benevolist principles in Edgar Huntly.” Upon looking at this essay, and after reading much of Edgar Huntly, I definitely can see the psychology and themes within the novel, and I remember how challenging and enticing it is to read such a work. I thoroughly enjoy Edgar Huntly for more reasons than one, but the main reason being that all the answers are not laid out for me. I find myself wrapped up in the novel and the characters, not so much trying to figure out the plot, but the sanity and course of action of the characters. I like to think that Brown would be proud to hear such a response if I could go back in time and ask him for his autograph. Ringe concludes his essay by saying, “Though a hasty and careless writer—he hurried all six of his novels through the press in about three years—Brown instilled in the best of his books a vitality yet apparent almost two centuries after they were written.”

          Through this experience, I have definitely acquired a great deal more understanding and appreciation for what is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors. It was indeed interesting to learn more of Brown’s personal background, not only in writing, but his religious and political views as well. I also gained some very valuable insight into reading and better understanding his works, which I very much intend to read more of. It was also interesting for me to verify my instinct on Brown’s writing style as being a bit out there and different from the norm in that he challenges the reader, leaving the conclusions about his characters up to us. As an aspiring writer myself, I will definitely put some of his enticing methods to use in my own stories. If I were to further continue down this research road, I would look up the popularity of his works at the time he was writing as it does not seem to me that Edgar Huntly would have been at the top of the Book Club List that everyone was chit-chatting about, even though he was one of the first fiction novelists in our country. We greatly enjoy Brown’s works today as we are more interested in the tales of the weird and twisted, but I wonder how effective and popular he was in his own time because of his choice of subject matter? It seems that things that worked in Europe at the time would not have flown so well in the states. Either way, Charles Brockden Brown was a sensational Gothic novelist and was quite literally before his time in creating psychologically challenging tales of twisted natures.

Sources:

Dana, Richard Henry. "(1827), in a review of 'The Novels of Charles Brockden Brown." The United States Review and Literary Gazette 2.5 (Aug. 1827): 321-333. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Apr. 2012.

Ringe, Donald A. "Charles Brockden Brown: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature. Ed. Jim Kamp. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Apr. 2012.

Rosenthal, Bernard. "Charles Brockden Brown." American Writers of the Early Republic. Ed. Emory Elliott. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 37. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Apr. 2012.

The Charles Brockden Brown Society. http://www.brockdenbrownsociety.ucf.edu/.