Arthur Mervyn by Charles Brockden Brown

arts · EN-US

Kicked out of his parental home by his scheming young stepmother, a young country boy, Arthur Mervyn arrives in Philadelphia. Here he finds the city in the throes of a deadly yellow-fever epidemic. However, he finds a small job as a clerk and is determined to make his way in the world. He soon discovers that his employer is a con man and a murderer. One night, Arthur helps him dispose of a body in the river. While they're struggling with the corpse, the employer is swept away by the current...If you haven't encountered American Gothic before, Arthur Mervyn by Charles Brockden Brown is a great introduction to this genre. Originally published in two parts, the novel is set in the turbulent, crime ridden and disease prone Philadelphia of 1793. Arthur Mervyn was published in 1799 and 1800 respectively. It reflects several aspects of the age in which Brockden Brown wrote the aftermath of the French Revolution was still being felt in America. The Reign of Terror, which dismantled the class