Edgar Huntly, or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker

By Charles Brockden Brown

One of the first American Gothic novels, Edgar Huntly mirrors the social and political temperaments of the postrevolutionary United States.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Nov 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781625580269

Charles Brockden Brown

Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) was an American novelist and historian. Born to a family of Quakers in Philadelphia, Brown studied as a lawyer before embarking on a literary career. Alongside his work as a successful author of novels, short stories, essays, and poetry, Brown was a well-regarded editor and public intellectual. He was heavily influenced by British radicals of the French Revolutionary period, including Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and became an important figure both in the developing American literary scene and for such writers as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley. His style exhibits a profound understanding of Gothic fiction and radical democratic politics, and his works incorporate elements of sentimental fiction, the captivity narrative, and epistolary form in their composition. Although he was far from the only writer working in early America, his critical acclaim and popular success certainly make him one of the most important. Brown’s brief but productive career earned the admiration of Walter Scott, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, all of whom he inspired and influenced.

Reviews for Edgar Huntly, or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker

[markbstephenson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This features some riveting action scenes and some ingenious plot surprises. The Irishman Clithero is a memorable but exceedingly problematical character. I got the impression that Brown brought this to an end in a semi-complete form, perhaps having tired of it.

[aethercowboy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found this book to be particularly dry. While normally an astute reader whose triumphs include Finnegans Wake, Gravity's Rainbow, and Atlas Shrugged, I found it difficult to follow the narrative structure of this book.Edgar Huntly, or so I assume from what I gathered reading the book, is an American who, after the mysterious death of an associate, decides to investigate the murder. He targets a stranger, who he finds is also a somnambulate. The other man spends some time telling of his back story, and how he feels guilt at having caused the death of a man back home, as well as the man's sister, whom he loved. Huntly's interactions with this man take him on a journey wrapped in mystery, danger, and adventure, I guess. During a raid conducted by angry indigenous people of North America, Huntly escapes, and does some other things to prove to himself, and the reader, that he is of superior stock.This book may just not have been down my alley. I found myself struggling continually trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Before I picked up a copy of Edgar Huntly, I had never before heard of Charles Brockden Brown. I may attempt other books by him, but I won't set my expectations quite as high for future works.