Product Description

The story of a young man who sleepwalks each night and is a threat to himself and others, unable to control his baser passions. Set outside Philadelphia in 1787, the book is a metaphor for the founding of a new nation, but can be read on a literal level as an American "Gothic" novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2855987 in Books
• Published on: 1985-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 495 pages

Customer Reviews

What Lies Beneath
First published in 1799, Charles Brockden Brown's novel, "Edgar Huntly" is an insane masterpiece. I love Brown. I read this novel for the first time a few years ago, and thought it was about time to refresh my memory. Set outside of Philadelphia in the final years of the 1780's, "Edgar Huntly," like other of Brown's works, test the new American republic's capacity to govern while balancing the needs and desires of its culturally disparate inhabitants.

The novel is purportedly a correspondence from the protagonist, Edgar Huntly, to his friend/love interest, Mary Waldegrave, in the aftermath of her brother's death. Edgar is an educated, refined, enlightened young man, disconsolate upon the death of his friend. An avid walker, Edgar frequently leaves the environs of his hometown, Solebury, returning to the scene of his friend's death, a large elm tree. Near this tree late one evening, he spots a man, conspicuously lurking, burying something beneath the tree. Suspecting this man, Clithero, of Waldegrave's murder, Edgar begins a career of surveillance and tracking, following Clithero to his residence and through the uncharted wildernesses that border his hometown. What follows is Edgar's progress in discovering the truths behind the death of Waldegrave, the history of Clithero, and the foundations of his own self-control and rationality.

Brown deals with a number of issues throughout the novel current to late 18th century America, including the dispossession of Native Americans from their land, Irish immigration, and the instability of a newly formed nation. Philosophically, Brown examines popular 18th century debates over the limits of sympathy, and the ability of sense, experiment, and observation to conclusively explain human nature. In his preface to the novel, Brown says that his novel will not exploit the then-common motifs of gothic fiction. Perhaps, but Brown, taking the example of William Godwin, moves the castles, dungeons, and murders of traditional gothic into the psyches of his characters. Dementia, paranoia, and in this novel, at least, the uncontrollability of sleep-walking, constitute the largely internal threats to personal and national safety.

So join Edgar, Clithero, Sarsefield, the Lorimers, Inglefield, Queen Mab, and an army of hostile natives, on an intricate, often horrifying romp through late 18th century America. Brown's doubts and fears about living in the new nation will entrance and mortify you, and possibly make you consider putting yourself in restraints before you go to bed at night.

Another masterpiece overlooked...
This book is truly one of the most interesting and purely entertaining books I've ever read. The creepy imagery of the sleepwalking man digging in the street and then the caves and indians will stick with me forever. What an amazingly creative man. An x-files-esque dreamer living in the 1790s.

Brockden Brown's Twisted Imagination
This novel is an excellent journey through the dark, disturbing wilderness of 18th century America and its dangers. The wars that raged between Natives and their oppressors (the English) are here brutally portrayed. With a new introduction to English literature of the effects of sleepwalking, this is also a journey through the psychology of a psychotic sleepwalker, and the devils that haunt him. An excellent read for those searching for the natural horror of humanity, with a little suggestion of the supernatural, though very heavy both in language, and symbolism and metaphor. A tough read, but well worth it.