Hackett Publishing

Set during the epic Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793, Charles Brockden Brown's classic gothic novel Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 connects the outbreak with the upheavals of the revolutionary era and the murderous financial networks of Atlantic slavery.

This edition of Arthur Mervyn offers selections from key contemporary texts as well as excerpts from Brown's own writings on slavery, race, and the uses of history in fiction.

"This new edition of Arthur Mervyn far exceeds any previous version of this remarkable American novel.  Through exhaustive archival research, the editors have produced a reliable text constructed within the intellectual, cultural, political, and religious contexts of a society informing Brown's efforts to capture and preserve the formation of the early republic for generations of readers and cultural historians.  This vital text is essential reading for anyone interested in the origins of the United States."
     —Emory Elliott, University Professor, University of California-Riverside

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Introduction
A Note on the Text

Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the Year 1793

Related Texts:

A. By Charles Brockden Brown:

     1. "Walstein's School of History. From the German of
              Krants of Gotha" (August–September 1799)
     2. "The Difference between History and Romance"
              (April 1800)
     3. Two Statements on the Modern Novel:
              a) "Romances" (January 1805)
              b) Excerpt from "Terrific Novels" (April 1805)
     4. "The Man at Home—No. XI" (April 1798)
     5. "Portrait of an Emigrant" (June 1799)
     6. "What Is a JEW?" (November 1800)
     7. Excerpts from "On the Consequences of Abolishing the
              Slave Trade to the West Indian Colonies"
              (November 1805)

B. Literary and Cultural Context:

     8. William Birch, "Plan of the City of Philadelphia" (1800)
     9. William Godwin, excerpts from Enquiry Concerning
              Political Justice (1793)
     10. Mary Wollstonecraft, excerpts from Letters Written
              during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and
              Denmark (1796)
     11. Laurence Sterne, excerpt from A Sentimental Journey
              through France and Italy (1768)
     12. Mathew Carey, excerpts from A Short Account of the
              Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia (1793)
     13. Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, excerpt from A Narrative
              of the Proceedings of the Black People during the Late Awful
              Calamity in Philadelphia in the Year 1793 (1794)
     14. Three Abolitionist Addresses from Brown's Circle:
              a) Theodore Dwight, excerpts from An Oration
                  (May 1794)
              b) Elihu Hubbard Smith, excerpts from A Discourse
                  (April 1798)
              c) Samuel Miller, excerpts from A Discourse
                  (April 1797)
15. Two Perspectives on Slavery from The Monthly Magazine:
              a) "H.L.," excerpt from "Thoughts on the Probable
                  Termination of Negro Slavery in the United States of
                  America" (February 1800)
              b) William Eton, excerpts from "Interesting Account of
                  the Character and Political State of the Modern Greeks"
                  (May 1800)
     16. Benjamin Nones vs. the Gazette:
              a) "An Observer," excerpts from "For the Gazette of the
                  United States" (August 5, 1800)
              b) Benjamin Nones, "To the Printer of the Gazette of
                  the U.S." (August 13, 1800)
     17. Lydia Maria Child, excerpts from Isaac T. Hopper:
              A True Life (1853)

Bibliography and Works Cited

Philip Barnard is Conger-Gabel Teaching Professor in English, University of Kansas.

Stephen Shapiro is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick.


Also Available from Hackett Publishing Company:

Modern Chivalry, by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Edited and Introduced by Ed White

Other works by Charles Brockden Brown, edited, with introductions,
by Philip Barnard and Stephen Shapiro:

Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker, with Related Texts

Wieland; or the Transformation, with Related Texts

Ormond; or, the Secret Witness, with Related Texts

Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland, Ormond, Arthur Mervyn, and Edgar Huntly, with Related Texts: A Four-Volume Set