Introduction to “Wieland’s Madness,” from “Wieland, or The
Transformation.”
From Virtue’s blissful paths awayThe double-tongued are sure to stray;Good is a forth-right journey still.And mazy paths but lead to ill.
“WIELAND” is the first American novel. It appeared in 1798; its author was soon recognized as the earliest American novelist; and he remained the greatest, until Fenimore Cooper brought forth his Leather-stocking Tales, a quarter of a century later.
Although modern sophistication easily points out flaws in Charles Brockden Brown’s story-structure, and reproves him for improbability, morbidness, and a style often too elevated, yet his work lives. His downright originality is worthy of Cooper himself, and his weird imaginations and horribly sustained scenes of terror have been surpassed by few writers save Edgar Allan Poe.
Charles Brockden Brown