Publisher's Synopsis
Arthur Mervyn is a novel written by Charles Brockden Brown and published in 1799. It was one of Brown's more popular novels, and is in many ways representative of Brown's dark, gothic style and subject matter. PLOT: Meeting Mervyn Arthur Mervyn is discovered by Dr. Stevens sitting on a bench. He is suffering from yellow fever, and since Dr. Stevens has pity on him, is invited into the Stevens household. A little after he gets better, Mr. Wortley comes over to pay Dr. Stevens a visit, recognizes Arthur Mervyn, and reacts with extreme displeasure at seeing him. Dr. Stevens is of course suspicious of Mervyn now and demands an explanation for Wortley's reaction. Mervyn begins to tell his story in an effort to clear his name in the eyes of Dr. Stevens. This is the frame, and nearly three quarters of the book bring Mervyn's adventures up to this moment in time. The rest of the book continues on after the storytelling, with Mervyn keeping Dr. Stevens informed either in person or via letters of the continuing adventures, all of which revolve around a tightly knit network of people. Arthur Mervyn is a country boy who lived with his father and their servant, Betty, on a farm near Philadelphia. Betty, however, married the father and Mervyn could no longer remain in the house without conflict (there is a rumor he seduced her). Arthur leaves the farm and heads toward the city, where he ends up entirely penniless, as he has been cheated out of all his money on the way there... Arrival in the city Upon arriving in the city he seeks out a friend of his father's, but he never ends up meeting him. Instead he meets a man named Wallace who invites him to stay in his home for the night. Arthur follows Wallace home, and Wallace promptly locks him into a pitch dark room. Realizing that he has been tricked, Arthur tries to escape without being noticed. He does this, but not before he overhears a private conversation between the true occupants of his quarters. When Arthur does manage to escape, he leaves behind only his shoes and some open doors and windows. Without shoes or money he decides to head home (but can't because he can't pay the bridge toll). He decides to beg money from a man he meets on the street, and is promptly hired by this man.....Welbeck introduced The man in question is Welbeck, who is a thief and a forger. The encounter will cost Mervyn more than he stood to gain from begging. Welbeck dresses Mervyn in city clothes, introduces him to Clemenza Lodi, a woman he claims is his daughter and tells him that he will start work the following week. Mervyn soon discovers that Welbeck is a thief and a seducer (Clemenza is pregnant). Not a week has passed before Welbeck is destitute, has killed a man named Watson and buried him in the basement, and escaped from Philadelphia via the river, with Mervyn rowing the boat. Charles Brockden Brown (January 17, 1771 - February 22, 1810) was an American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period. He is generally regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore Cooper. He is the most frequently studied and republished practitioner of the "early American novel," or the US novel between 1789 and roughly 1820. Although Brown was not the first American novelist, as some early criticism claimed, the breadth and complexity of his achievement as a writer in multiple genres (novels, short stories, essays and periodical writings of every sort, poetry, historiography, reviews) makes him a crucial figure in US literature and culture of the 1790s and first decade of the 19th century, and a significant public intellectual in the wider Atlantic print culture and public sphere of the era of the French Revolution.........
