Arthur Mervyn

Name: Arthur Mervyn
Author: Charles Brockden Brown

Arthur Mervyn is narrated within a frame: an unnamed Philadelphia doctor and his wife take in a fever-stricken youth, Arthur Mervyn, during the 1793 yellow-fever epidemic. Their friend Wortley recognizes Mervyn as an associate of Thomas Welbeck, a man who vanished owing Wortley money, and accuses him of complicity. To clear himself, Mervyn narrates his history to the doctor and his wife, Eliza. Mervyn grew up on his father's Chester County farm. After his mother's death, his father married the family's coarse servant, Betty Lawrence, and Mervyn, alienated from the household, set out for Philadelphia with almost nothing. Robbed of his bundle (containing a portrait of a dead friend, Clavering), he was lured by a stranger into a strange nighttime house, hid in a closet, overheard a couple's private conversation and a plot involving a "nabob," and escaped barefoot before dawn. Destitute again, he was taken in by Thomas Welbeck, a mysterious, wealthy-seeming man, who gave him fine clothes and lodging in exchange for future copying work, while withholding explanations. Welbeck lived with a young foreign woman he called his daughter, actually his mistress Clemenza Lodi. Mervyn delivered a letter to Mrs. Wentworth and, recognizing a portrait of Clavering there, learned Clavering had been her nephew, missing and presumed connected to Welbeck's household — but Welbeck swore him to secrecy. Suspicious of fraud against Welbeck by a merchant named Thetford, and disturbed by signs that Clemenza was pregnant, Mervyn grew increasingly uneasy. One night Welbeck's supposed shipping venture (arranged with Thetford) was revealed ruined by capture at sea. That same night, Amos Watson — brother of a woman Welbeck had seduced and abandoned, whose husband later died by suicide from grief — confronted Welbeck. In a duel-like exchange of pistols, Welbeck accidentally killed Watson. Welbeck confessed his full history to Mervyn: his indolent, dishonest life in England and America, his ruin of Watson's sister, his acquisition of a fortune left by a dying stranger, Vincentio Lodi (Clemenza's brother), whose money he appropriated instead of delivering it to Clemenza, and his scheme to pass off Lodi's manuscript memoir as his own work. Mervyn helped bury Watson's body in the cellar, then rowed with Welbeck across the Schuylkill, where Welbeck suddenly drowned himself. Mervyn swam ashore, mailed Watson's remaining money to his widow, retrieved the Lodi manuscript from Welbeck's library, and fled to the countryside. There he found work with the kindly Quaker farmer Hadwin and his daughters, Susan and Eliza, developing a private tenderness for Eliza that he suppressed as impractical. Studying the Lodi manuscript to learn Italian, he discovered banknotes worth $20,000 hidden between its glued pages — money he resolved belonged rightfully to the still-unlocated Clemenza Lodi, not to himself. Meanwhile, news arrived of the escalating yellow-fever epidemic in Philadelphia. Susan Hadwin's fiancé, Wallace, remained in the city despite her pleas, and her father wrote sternly commanding his return. The narrative breaks off here, mid-account of the Hadwin family's fear for Wallace's safety, before the outcome of Mervyn's return to the stricken city or his search for Clemenza Lodi is related.

By Charles Brockden Brown · First published 1799 · Genre: Gothic Fiction, Romantic Literature, Historical Fiction · 48 chapters · 174,205 words

First lines

I was resident in this city during the year 1793. Many motives contributed to detain me, though departure was easy and commodious, and my friends were generally solicitous for me to go. It is not my purpose to enumerate these motives, or to dwell on my present concerns and transactions, but merely to compose a narrative of some incidents with which my situation made me acquainted.

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Arthur Mervyn is listed on Textopian as a novel by Charles Brockden Brown, dated 1799 CE.

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Work type: Novel
Author: Charles Brockden Brown
Date: 1799 CE
Language: English
Genres: Gothic Fiction, Romantic Literature, Historical Fiction, Adventure Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Length: 174,205 words
Structure: 48 chapters, 2,222 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Discussion starters

What should a reader notice first when entering Arthur Mervyn?
How does this novel by Charles Brockden Brown fit its genre, period, or classroom use?
Where does Gothic Fiction first become important in the reading?

Similar titles

Genres

Gothic Fiction — Arthur Mervyn is characterized by elements of the gothic genre, such as gloomy and scary settings, the sense of mystery and suspense, and the exploration of dark human emotions.
Romantic Literature — The novel's emphasis on emotion, individual experience, and the supernatural align it with the Romantic literature movement.
Historical Fiction — The novel is set in the late 18th century and it presents a realistic depiction of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, marking it as a work of historical fiction.
Adventure Fiction — Arthur's journey from the countryside to the city and the various encounters he has there, dealing with numerous challenges, bring elements of adventure fiction into the story.