Edgar Huntly

Or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker

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Pages: 197

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About this book

Edgar Huntly bears the subtitle Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker and has an address headed To the Public. The address says that America has opened new views to the naturalist and politician but has seldom provided themes for the moral painter. The narrator asks whether hazardous experiments are wise when nothing can be gained and much may be lost, calling undisciplined and unhelpful curiosity vicious.

The narrator says that curiosity rewards itself and that knowledge has value for its own sake, with pleasure attached to acquiring it. A speaker who does not know Waldegrave's sister seeks her whereabouts so that suitable questions about her deceased brother can be answered. The narrator describes Clithero's condition as more deplorable and says that he incessantly meditates on possible means of relief.

About the author

Charles Brockden Brown

Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) was an American novelist from Philadelphia, widely regarded as the first professional writer in the United States. His Gothic novels, among them Wieland and Arthur Mervyn, influenced later authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and helped shape a distinctly American literary tradition.