Wieland, Or, the Transformation

Wieland, or, The Transformation, An American Tale is a remarkable book for a number of reasons. American literature scarcely existed in the late 18th century when Charles Brockden Brown made the bold decision to pursue a literary career. Wieland, published in 1798, is a gothic novel, but it's more than that. It's a complete reinvention of the gothic novel, with the accepted trappings of moldering castles and doomed aristocratic heroes being discarded entirely. It's the beginning of American gothic, and it' an astonishingly accomplished beginning. Brown focuses on psychology, and the novel is also a very early example of the psychological thriller. Wieland lives on what seems to be a fairly isolated estate on the Schuylkill River, with his wife and children and his sister Clara (who narrates the tale). His grandfather had succumbed to religious mania and had established what was to all intents and purposes a one-man cult, and had died in mysterious circumstances. Wieland has inherited his religious disposition and his tendency towards melancholy and a gloomy sense of duty. The little colony is complete by his young ward, and by a much more frivolous young man named Pleyel, a young man who seems to be forming a romantic attachment to Clara. All is well until the arrival of an enigmatic stranger named Carwin, which coincides with a series of odd events involving unexplained voices. These events are slightly unsettling but are soon overtaken by far more sensational and grisly occurrences. Wieland abounds in gothic atmosphere. The religious fanaticism and the cultism give the book a disturbingly modern flavor, and the horrors are far more plausible than those in contemporary English gothic novels such as those of Ann Radcliffe. Brown adopts a similar approach to Radcliffe towards the supernatural, but with a higher degree of ambiguity. Like all good early gothic novels it relies on sensationalistic and sometimes far-fetched plot devices, but that's part of the charm of early gothic. Wieland remains a disturbing and genuinely horrifying tale. Essential reading for anyone with any interest at all in the gothic.

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