THE BEGINNING OF AMERICAN NOVEL

In the last decade of the 18th century a forming of a novel as a genre began in America. American novelists leaned on the experience of European literature. The most successful was an attempt undertaken by Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1748-1816) in his vast work “MODERN CHIVALRY, or ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN JOHN FARRAGO AND TEEG O’REEGAN, HIS SERVANT” (1792-7).

HUGH HENRY BRACKENRIDGE was a writer, lawyer, and judge of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. A frontier[12] citizen of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he founded both the Pittsburgh Academy and the “Pittsburgh Gazette”, still operating today.

In 1815 Brackenridge completed “Modern Chivalry”. This satirical novel is the first realistic work in American prose literature. It is widely considered to be the first important fictional work about the American frontier and called “to the West what Don Quixote was to Europe”.

The main heroes are an obvious parody on the images of Don Quixote and Sancho Pansa. “Modern Chivalry” is written in the spirit of English Enlightenment novel of the 18th century. John Farrago and his Irish servant Teeg O’Reegan leave captain’s farm in Pennsylvania for a journey along the country. Captain Farrago is a clever and well-read man. He sees the dark sides of American democracy. He venomously criticizes land speculation, the abuse during the elections, a cynical power of dollar. His servant isn’t the same. He aspires to use a democratic system with the purpose of a quick enrichment and personal eminence.

Read the information below and give a short account of Brown’s gothic novels.

The prominent place in American literature of the 18th century belongs to CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN (1771-1810), the author of a series of "gothic" novels. It is notable that he is the first professional American writer. He was a lawyer, but left his juridical activity and devoted himself to literature. Charles B. Brown was inspired by the English writer Radcliffe[13]. From 1798 to 1801 he wrote 6 novels, 4 of which became famous both in America and in Europe. They are “WIELAND” (1798), “ORMOND” (1799), “EDGAR HUNTLEY”, “ARTHUR MERVYN”. Unusually, his novels were set in the USA.

In 1804, he married, but he died of tuberculosis at the age of only thirty-nine.

In his novels Brown widely uses a genre base of “gothic” novels. His novel “WIELAND” begins with the story of a fire, in which the father of Theodore and Claire Wielands perishes. A villain Carvin, using a gift of ventriloquism frustrates wedding of Claire and drives Theodore to insanity. Theodore is seemed to hear “a voice from above” which lord it over to kill. He kills his wife, children, tries to kill his sister, and her screaming bring him his mind, but only to realize all horror of what he had done and death becomes like deliverance.

The main idea of the novels “Arthur Mervyn” and “Ormond” is a triumph of justice over evil. In “ORMOND” Steven Dudley, a New York chemist, honest and well-disposed is ruined by his adroit and unscrupulous apprentice Craig, whom his chemist’s passed to. In order to keep his family, Dudley takes a job of a clerk in a law office. His wife dies. He becomes blind of cataract. The only support of the family becomes his daughter, a 16-year-old girl Constance. After long ordeals the father and the daughter face to a choice: either asylum or a death from starvation.

At the most tragic moment a saver appears. It is Ormond, Dudley’s acquaintance from New York. He saves the family from a death from starvation. But little by little it turns out that a young man is a villain whose purpose is to seduce Constance. That’s why he ruined Dudley, having used Craig as his tool. Ormond has already tempted and left to the mercy of fate one girl. Now Constance becomes his next victim.

Having removed the father (Ormond set Craig to murder Dudley), the villain penetrates to the daughter’s room at night. Constance tries to run away, but all the ins and outs are shut. Then she seizes a knife and threatens to kill herself if only Ormond encroaches upon her honour. The threat doesn’t have an effect, and Constance dips a knife into the criminal’s heart.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 984