Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist

by Charles Brockden Brown, Jay Fliegelman (Editor)

A terrifying account of the fallibility of the human mind and, by extension, of democracy itself, Wieland brilliantly reflects the psychological, social, and political concerns of the early American republic. In the fragmentary sequel, Memoirs, Brown explores Carwin’s bizarre history as a manipulated disciple of the charismatic utopian Ludloe.

Genres: Classics, Gothic, Fiction, Horror, Literature, American, College

370 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1798

About the author

Charles Brockden Brown (January 17, 1771 – February 22, 1810), an American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period, is generally regarded by scholars as the most ambitious and accomplished US novelist before James Fenimore Cooper. He is the most frequently studied and republished practitioner of the "early American novel," or the US novel between 1789 and roughly 1820. Although Brown was by no means the first American novelist, as some early criticism claimed, the breadth and complexity of his achievement as a writer in multiple genres (novels, short stories, essays and periodical writings of every sort, poetry, historiography, reviews) makes him a crucial figure in US literature and culture of the 1790s and first decade of the 19th century, and a significant public intellectual in the wider Atlantic print culture and public sphere of the era of the French Revolution.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls]

Another undergraduate reappraisal. No reappraisal needed. This still creaks like an arthritic tiptoeing across an uneven subfloor.

[Jay Sandover · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend told me that Wieland was the poet Shelley’s favorite novel. It was published in 1798, the same year as Lyrical Ballads, the monumental (to Shelley, to me) volume of poetry by Wordsworth and Coleridge that contains both “Tintern Abbey” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” These two books came at the beginning of the modern age. Or the tail end of the Age of Reason (Kant dies in 1804, recall). Events a decade on either side of this novel were wild with change. The French king lost his head. There was the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson sent off Lewis and Clark. There was the Haitian revolution. In 1798, the Alien and Sedition Acts shook the barely constituted USA. Something was being born, a new idea about social relations and power. Times of change are times of crisis for the perceptive storytelling mind. The vision of Charles Brockden Brown is a common American theme:

Somebody is coming to destroy you.

A lengthier review on my website:

https://www.thevisionarycompany.net/b...

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read WIELAND: OR THE TRANSFORMATION for different reasons than I think the majority will read it. I'll bet a lot of people read it because it's a very early example of the "American Novel". Most are probably assigned it for a class. Perhaps some read it because of interest in a particular aspect (religious mania, biloquisim as portrayed in popular culture...God knows). I read it as part of a general overview I've taken on of the Gothic novel and so, being a "root of American Gothic" novel, here it was and so I read...

I'm going to reverse my usual approach to these things and give my opinion first, because what little joy can be gleaned from reading WIELAND comes from it's surprises and I'll probably give those meager joys away.

So, should a casual reader read WIELAND? No, not really. The central idea is interesting but (and please know that I am quite an apologist for older writing styles) - the writing is enervating and the story not too well told. You could spend your time on much better stuff, unless you have a particular interest.

Okay, so, that out of the way, WIELAND is famous for being an American Gothic novel - why? Because, let's see, the main characters' father spontaneously combusts in the first chapter - and this isn't any Dickens "they found nothing but a heap of ash", after-the-fact kind of thing. He goes to worship in his specially built temple in the hills north of Philadelphia and pretty much explodes violently. His burned body is found. We never know why he exploded. This is unimportant to the main plot, really, or at least unrelated in a factual sense. The father is a religious oddball, so that may have some tonal import.

Then comes the second Gothic aspect. The book proper is about Clara Wieland and her brother Theodore and how they are plagued by occasional voices from nowhere, and how the sister is both attracted to and repelled by an odd but charismatic and beautifully voiced young man named Francis Carwin. These voices cause much wonderment and get our narrator, sister Clara, into a pretty pickle of suppositions about her reputation and entertaining men at odd hours and many misunderstandings are fretted over and speechified about. Clara thinks there is something odd about Carwin, and finds evidence that he is possibly a murderer.

Then, suddenly, brother Theodore kills his entire family because he hears the voice of God telling him to (wife and 5 kids!). There is no forewarning. Theodore also wants to kill Clara and Carwin because God tells him to and he is not at all sorry about his mass bloodshed. Then Carwin reveals to Clara that he can throw his voice with amazing accuracy (he is an expert mimic and also, wait for it... a Biloquist, which is to say he is a Ventriloquist without a dummy) and has been the source of all the mysterious voices, except he DID NOT cause Theodore to hear some divine, homicidal voice. Then Theodore, who is roaming the countryside, traps them in a room. Then the book ends. Then, 40-odd pages later, the book actually ends.

Coincidences abound. There is much flowery and high-falutin' talk about reputations and respect and love and such (Clara loses her dashing young boyfriend, but that's okay, she regains him in the extended ending). As the introduction by Fred Lewis Pattee states (even while trying to rehabilitate Brown's reputation), the writing is poor: sloppy and overly embellished. The wind doesn't just blow, "nature signs her resignation through her sweetest of voicings, spreading melancholy across the fair land even as she caresses the cheek of..." and on and on with much effulgence. And I usually have a pretty high tolerance for this tommyrot, as I try to place writing in its proper time period.

Even worse, Brown changed his mind about the plot halfway through, so Carwin isn't evil, he's just misunderstood and, in a twist relatable to American classic CALEB WILLIAMS, under the control of some evil man (never seen). Unfortunately, this leaves all kinds of details from earlier in the book either hanging as red herrings (drying in the salty, literary wind) or hastily wound up in a totally botched extended ending. Poo!

Carwin is kind of interesting as a character. Much has been made of the book's focus on Brother Theodore's religious mania, and that's also pretty well done and frightening (he evidences no traces of insanity, but Carwin's misguided tricks drive him crazy). Not really noted, as far as I can tell, is that Carwin is also, essentially, a creepy stalker fixated on Clara, going into her house and bedroom when she's not there, reading her diary, hiding in her enormous closet, sticking his head through the window to cast his voice to her. Creepy stalker is Carwin.

Oh, and about that last part - ventriloquism is essentially treated as superpower in this book. It has nothing to do with not moving your lips or animating a little man made of cork to distract people into thinking your voice is coming from somewhere else as you drink a glass of water and say "I vant a gottle of geer". No, if you are in a house or even wandering the countryside (and you happen to be an expert mimic as well), your target will hear the voice you cast right next to them, even when they're alone, JUST AS IF YOU ARE SPEAKING IN THEIR EAR. If you are Carwin, you can even mimic the sounds of a rampaging crowd or animals. Crazy!

As noted, Brown changed gears mightily about halfway through writing the book. At some point, Carwin was going to explain to Clara why he was doing what he was doing (other than being a creepy stalker) in the first place, but that chapter got so big that Brown broke it off and published it separately as a serial called MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST - and that's appended to the end of the book. It's a little more fun than WEILAND, especially as it unconvincingly tells us how young Carwin first learns of his amazing ability whilst looking for a lost cow on his father's farm in the Lehigh valley. Later, Carwin, a bit of a shirk-a-work, lives with his rich old aunt and gets indolent, tricking people by telling them his well-trained dog can talk.

Then, the story proper starts and Carwin is taken under the wing of the mysterious Ludloe, a seemingly beneficent and well-traveled man who appears to be training Carwin for something - but what? Indoctrination into some vast secret society, it appears, through which he can help all of mankind. But Carwin can never tell anyone of the existence of the society under pain of death (and destruction to whomever he told - isn't it always the way). But Carwin is unsure - Ludloe asks him to romance and marry a wealthy Irish women under the pretense of cataloging her late husband's archeological ephemera. Should he accept? Should he tell Ludloe about his amazing power? Might Ludloe know already and is waiting to see if Carwin doesn't tell him, thus proving his disloyalty and ending Carwin's life? And why does Ludloe have a strange map of some mysterious and remote island nation on his bookshelf, where rivers and town are marked but nothing is named? Who are the secret society? What are their goals?

Too bad we'll never know - Brown never finished it. I'm not sure, but I expect the answers would have been long-winded, overwrought and disappointing, regardless.

[Alina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Phew, glad that one is over. I mean, it's not like the story is bad. It's actually quite atmospheric and creepy. But the narration... oh dear. The writing just does nothing to recommend this book to the reader whatsoever. In the beginning, I didn't mind it, but as I kept on going I found it more and more off-putting. I have yet to find an 18th century novel that I like.

[Heera Rajavel · Rating 1 out of 5]

MY PROFESSOR SAID HE FOUND MY GOODREADS AND READ THIS. he also said he didn’t apologize, he just warned us about the book!


this booked dragged more than the fish on the end of a line. my professor apologized before assigning it to us, and he sure needed to apologize.

[Lauren Albert]

Despite the fact that I think Brown is a terrible writer, I wrote my dissertation on him. The reason is simple--his novels are fascinating in how they reflect the time he lived in. I was writing about him almost exactly 200 years after he wrote his novels. and the parallels between the two periods are amazing--a desperate seeking for a foundation to build trust on, a fear of strangers, a doubt about the truthfulness of appearances and experiences. I found it all strangely fascinating and his novels strikingly modern, even post-modern in their concerns.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must note that this one is an acquired taste, as it is pretty dark, but I enjoyed it for its originality. Think 19th century X-files - spontaneous human combustion and all (though not aliens!). Mysterious, sometimes frightening and serious - also must read "Memoirs" as it is critical to "Wieland" and not just an addendum.

[J.G. Keely · Rating 2 out of 5]

One thing which defines the Gothic movement is a ponderous and measured movement. Scenes and events are allowed to unfold minutely, creating tone not with a word, but with a constant and inexorable movement. This allows the author to subtly ease the reader into a strange and consuming world without relying overmuch on symbols and archetypes.

The world of Wieland is strange, and neurotically consuming, but Brown's wealth of words are more overstimulating than engrossing. To paraphrase Mark Twain's critique of Cooper, the author throws his entire force against every action, treating a momentary aside with the same gravity and complexity as a climactic revelation.

As the seminal American novelist, Brown left behind a literary philosophy evident in both Cooper and Hawthorne: never use five words where twenty will do. Brown's contemporary, Jane Austen, utilized a similar formality of speech, and with it exerted careful control over sprawling tales of minute human conflict.

But Austin was a master of tone and character, and filled her plots with intrigue. Brown's characters are shallow, melodramatic, and as dumb or brilliant as the plot requires. The plot itself meanders around the pretentious, flawed narrator, and the construction and pacing leave much to be desired.

Brown sets up impossible mysteries which build and build until some deus ex machina enters and explains it all in a flurry of exposition. We then find that the mystery was entirely red herrings and the explanation relies on what I'd call 'plot magic'.

In such cases, instead of an actual human solution, we are told it was done by a wizard, or a hypnotist, or some other agency that was both impossible to guess and never foreshadowed. This is also why JK Rowling will never succeed at her wish to write 'adult mysteries'.

This is the chief difference between Austen and Brown's styles: her plots hinge on the same emotional drama that her characters constantly spout, while Brown's is entirely divorced from the constant whirlwind of tears, fainting, and madness that his unlucky characters inhabit.

Looking on his characters from the present, they may seem to have an air of sophistication and intelligence, but they are really just goofy dorks. We must recall that arguing the particulars of Cicero was the 17th century equivalent of discussing different classes in WOW. They are ultimately idle, eccentric, and self-involved, producing nothing of worth.

So we have a lady writing about a handful of dorky homebodies weeping over an unsolvable mystery in a guilelessly complex hand. It is sometimes interesting for its sheer ridiculousness, and for its period, but it is more notable as a gothic influence than as a stand-alone work.

[Aviva Pellman · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 bc how do u manage to write a novel that could be condensed by half OR MORE! bc the entirety of your narrative structure is: event happens, narrator obsessively reflects upon event, then other character also involved in the event gives their detailed recounting of said event back to the narrator, and again the narrator reflects on this new perspective…I get that this is like a metafictional ventriloquising vibe which like COOL but from a readerly perspective, so un-fun. Also prose was boring and unimaginative af lowkey. Sorry also just major moment of villain is presented as majorly villainous at the beginning and absolutely nothing is subversive or plot twisty over the course of the novel in regard to his villainy and by the end you find out that he is just that…the villain! But also like. I had fun overall somehow

[Emily Selchow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is CBB capable of writing a book that isn’t batshit insane? The evidence would suggest no.

[John Pistelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early American novel--perhaps the most famous one--about a family destroyed by mysterious voices that come out of the air with warnings and commands. Narrated in plainspoken prose by Clara, the sister of the titular Weiland, the novel depicts a family attempting to devote itself to the reasonable discourse befitting a young republic; they regularly gather in a neo-classical-style temple with a bust of Cicero in the center. (But the temple was designed by their father, a religious fanatic immigrant from Germany who died under strange circumstances.) I won't spoil the plot if you don't know it already, but as in many Gothic novels, the agent of the apparently supernatural actions turns out to be human. Or does he? The novel leaves a lot of things unexplained--many weird events escape its ostensible commitment to reason. The effect--and, I suppose, the purpose--is to call into question reason itself, perhaps to sound a rueful warning about that reason's political corollary in democratic governance. On the other hand, perhaps the novel offers itself as a solution to the problem of endemic fanaticism and passion: maybe the novel is a proto-Freudian "writing cure" to keep us all sane.

As for its quality, Weiland is powerfully intense in parts, but between those parts are acres of verbiage, mainly consisting of Clara's self-interrogations and effusions. I understand the point of this type of writing--the novel even at this point in its history is supposed to make the inner life public--but it does grow tiresome after a while, and one begins to appreciate Jane Austen's mastery of dispensing with the first-person narrators of all those eighteenth-century epistolary and memoiristic novels and instead revealing subjective states through free indirect style, not to mention Poe's insight that the communication of fear and terror benefits from narrative compression.

This volume contains an unfinished prequel, the memoir of Wieland's villain. I found this more interesting than Weiland itself, since it details more of the political and philosophical context of Brown's fictional world. In short, Carwin, a would-be intellectual escaped from the Pennsylvania farm of his oppressively know-nothing father, encounters a political radical named Ludloe who invites him to join a secret society that may have already founded a utopia on an island in the southern hemisphere...and then the text breaks off. It seemed like we were going to find out more about the political stance of these texts, especially if the Rousseauist/Godwinian ideals are shown to be sinister, but alas. (I gather that Brown's political views are hotly debated by scholars.)

These novels are well worth reading, for their moments of high drama and terror and for their hardly mitigated skepticism, even if they can't equal the power of the novels and stories they went on to influence--those of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville.

[sasha]

creeeeeepy liked it way more than the British gothic … something about America. works better for the genre I think. maybe it’s the building up horror from the new world without campy European medievalism that makes it so effective and haunting.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Without a lot of time for this review, I'll just sort of have to make some quick comments:

The actual events in this book were entertaining enough (if not completely ridiculous, but the author continually resorts to the excuse of these resulting from various "phenomena"). I understand the reasoning behind Wieland's position in the history of American literature, and for that I give credit where it is due. However: I was so frustrated by the characters that during my reading, my "margin notes" were less useful and academic than me "venting" at the overt stupidity of Clara, Pleyel and Wieland. I agree with my professor in that the narrative reads like Brown was "running out of breath," in that it rushes forward, is often fantatical, and the dialogue just keeeeeeps runnninnnng onnnnn. That, combined with the ridiculous number of reversals in the story, pretty much left me with whiplash.

I definitely wouldn't read it again, and I would recommend it only to those with serious interest in early American Lit.

[Hilary Scharper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a most unusual read in terms of my ventures into the gothic genre—in this case early American gothic—but it was utterly absorbing! Originally published in 1798, it has many of the literary conventions of the period and to contemporary reader, the prose can seem very purple (!), but the story is compelling and indeed disturbing. The story's dark events are based on a true 18th century incident and the scenario is by no means unfamiliar the 21st century. Very chilling!

Additionally, for those fascinated by depictions of "nature" in literature, this provides a distinctly early American interpretation of "wilderness." In this novel, the dark forces of so-called untamed nature ominously circle the newborn city of Philadelphia.

[Cas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grade: B-

I had to read this for my university degree.

Well this certainly went a different way than I expected! I did enjoy parts of it, and it was certainly fast-paced, I just sometimes found it difficult to understand our narrator’s inner monologue.

[Benjamin Alves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished Wieland did not read Carwin.

Wieland is overall a great gothic novel with twists and turns through the end of the novel. It at times is hard to comprehend some key plot points due to the linguistic style of Brockden Brown.

[Jess Lazenby · Rating 4 out of 5]

How much can our senses deceive us? Sight vs. sound? Logic vs. belief? Sense vs. imagination? I actually ended up lovinggggggg this

[Clif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weiland was published in 1798 by the first author of novels of note in America. It's written in the florid style of the times that can be an irritant or enjoyable to the modern reader. If you like things direct, Brown will seem to dance around everything, never using a short word when a long one will do. If you like a roller coaster text challenging your vocabulary, you'll savor this work as evidence of a lost art. I'll admit I've never come across "flagitious" before.

I was surprised after reading a substantial number of pages that the narrator is a woman because for a work of this era it is so unexpected. Yes, she faints a couple of times, but otherwise comes off as courageous and deeply thoughtful as she takes us through a mystery that leaves the reader thinking about religious fervor, rationality and responsibility.

We've come a long way from easy belief in ghosts and spirits, yet this story does bring many surprises that defy reason until they are explained in the end, with the exception of the death early in the story of the protagonist's father, the first of several bizarre events that upend the lives of family and friends.

How could they be so credulous? Scary stories are something to scoff about. Most of us consider ourselves subject to reason and I'm no exception, yet I would not spend a night alone in a large old house in the woods reputed to be haunted. Not that I believe in haunting, but I wouldn't trust my emotions to stay under control (and I do like a good sleep). Our imaginations are easily stimulated. Only in recent times have we been able to firmly establish science over superstition, so strongly are we prone to the latter. This tale is believable.

A short story, Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist fills out the book. I was captivated and eagerly turned the pages only to be let down with ...to be continued. There is nothing new in serials and in fact Weiland was first published by instalments in a magazine Brown edited.

Give your imagination a go with this double-header.

[John Wills · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much deeper and more thoughtful book than it is given credit for. The central plot device is criticized but its deeper meaning, I think, is often overlooked.

The language and phrasing are dated and it is not dressed in ornate or poetic flourishes and symbolism in the style of someone like Hawthorn. However the book has something interesting to say in the context of the time it was written and in regard to personal agency. Wieland is genuinely shocking and morally engaging if a reader has the temperament to weather the unhurried pace of its writing.

If you like older gothic fiction you may like, or even love as I did, this book. If you don’t like or read fiction from this time then you are not likely to enjoy it.

Consider the excellent collection “American Gothic Tales” edited by Joyce Carol Oates. It includes an except from Wieland that shows the connection between the novel and the real life murder that was Brown’s inspiration.

[Tonantzin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Omg i had to read this for decathlon and bro…it’s messed up
It’s weird bc it’s written by a man and the narrator is a woman so it feels super disconjunted.
Random disembodied voice said he wanted to rape her????
Honestly it reads like a parody of what old time “classic literature” is supposed to be
So much violence and gross stuff
Maybe I was biased bc this was read at 4am(day that I had to write the essay) but oh man was it insane

[Mia Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is amazing and not like any other classic I have had the pleasure of reading. The exploration of “voices” m is wholly unique during the time period in which is was published within. The allure and suspense created as a consequence is shocking and pleasing when you find out everything at the novel’s conclusion, tying in events at the end and bringing satisfaction from all mysteries being thus concluded.

[Sarah Wahl]

I went into reading this book expecting to hate it, but I actually enjoyed it way more than I expected! I think we need to bring back writers using spontaneous combustion in their novels again because that shit was so funny to read lol

[Anisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably my favourite uni book so far. The plot twist?? Was not expecting. I respect this one still

[Brent Hunsberger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m probably being harsh. But if you’re into 18th Century, semi- Gothic literature, entertaining thy might deduce.

[Cee · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the Gothicists are gonna come after me, but I enjoyed Wieland better than anything by Radcliffe. Despite overwrought prose, the pace is decent, and actual interesting things happen to a brave, likeable heroine. This book is best enjoyed knowing little of the plot - many blurbs actually spoil several imporant plot points.

---
Trigger warnings: religious fanatism, death in family, murder, threat of rape, gruesome death, suicide on-page & suicidal rationalizations.

[Caetlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

what a chore to read

[John Berner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely baffling book. When the voice of God commands you to kill your wife and children, just say NO.

[nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Brockden Brown certainly has a way to gimmick around the actual themes in his writings but i love how he negotiates america’s past trauma of puritanism through ventriloquism. at first a seemingly random plot device that slowly turns into absolute devilry and drives everyone insane/enables already mad characters to completely flip. this was WILD

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

With its mix of Gothic horror, Enlightenment musing, and psychological thriller elements, as well as its sensationalism and its debts to sentimental fiction, this early American novel defies easy characterization. In fact, Wieland is a hot mess. The plot verges on the inexplicable; it is hard to imagine that even its author had a firm vision of what he was aiming at thematically; and the prose, whether narrative, descriptive, or in dialogue is uniformly stilted and wordy.* But Brown's "American Tale" is a fascinatingly weird and unusual novel: two stars for execution, but four stars for effect, boosted by Emory Elliott's interesting introduction to the Oxford World's Classics edition, and by the inclusion of Brown's unfinished sequel, Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist, which looks like it would have been an intriguing mystery, although it would have had to do a lot to match its predecessor for strangeness.

*It's possible, of course, that this is a characteristic of the narrator's voice, rather than the author's—but Brown never commits firmly enough to this for us to be sure.

[Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ridiculous 1790s Gothic novels, I love you.