Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown

    

             Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown was first published in 1798, by Hocquet Caritat, New York.

It is one of the earliest American novels, following the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and certainly one of the earliest American Gothic novels. Brockden Brown wanted to move away from the European tradition of ruined castles, declining nobility and superstition, but his work still contains many of the accepted Gothic tropes: isolation, mental illness, religious fervor, twisted genius and doomed love. Brown uses scientific explanations to explain preternatural abilities.

The style may not be to everyone's taste. It is verbose, verging on ponderous, which get in the way of the story, and some of the actions of the main characters seem not only improbable, but ludicrous. However, we can allow some artistic license. 

            

The story is set in Pennsylvania in the 1760s and involves a fairly well-off family of German descent: Theodore Wieland, his wife Catherine and their four children, his unmarried sister Clara, and his wife's brother, Henry Pleyel. Wieland's father came over to America, via England, as a young man on a mission to convert Native Americans to Christianity. His religious fervor soon died and he set about making money and raising a family. He felt guilt over his failure, and his death, seemingly by spontaneous combustion was partly seen as God's retribution. This has a profound effect on his son. The belief in spontaneous combustion was widely held at the time.

            

The story is told by Clara Wieland, an unreliable narrator, as she admits she is writing the account as a form of therapy after a nervous breakdown brought on by the events. The family struggle to balance their Calvinistic beliefs and European heritage with the ideals of a new country, but they live an almost ideal, possibly child-like existence until a stranger, Carwin, enters their closed circle. This coincides with the hearing of strange voices. (It turns out Carwin is a biloquist, or ventriloquist.) Clara is an intelligent and independent woman, who lives on her own, on the family estate, about three quarters of a mile from her brother's house. Much of the psychological violence in the novel is directed at her.

            

The full title of the book is Wieland, or the Transformation. The transformation is that of Theodore                Wieland, changing from a deep-thinking, devoted family man to a religious fanatic. The idea behind            the story is based on the true story of a farmer, John Yates, living in New York State in 1781. Brockden Brown uses the novel to make social and political observations, focusing on democracy, gender issues, science and religion. The power of language also comes across strongly.

    

            Gothic rating:

        

            isolated setting                🕱

            brooding atmosphere      🕱

            mental illness                  🕱

            religion reference            🕱

            supernatural element

            murder                            🕱

            family secret                   🕱

            genius/madness              🕱

            doomed love                  🕱

            Wieland receives a rating of:       🕱🕱🕱🕱🕱🕱🕱🕱