Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the Year 1793

Set during the epic Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793, Charles Brockden Brown's classic gothic novel Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 connects the outbreak with the upheavals of the revolutionary era and the murderous financial networks of Atlantic slavery. This edition of Arthur Mervyn offers selections from key contemporary texts as well as excerpts from Brown's own writings on slavery, race, and the uses of history in fiction. "This new edition of Arthur Mervyn far exceeds any previous version of this remarkable American novel. Through exhaustive archival research, the editors have produced a reliable text constructed within the intellectual, cultural, political, and religious contexts of a society informing Brown's efforts to capture and preserve the formation of the early republic for generations of readers and cultural historians. This vital text is essential reading for anyone interested in the origins of the United States.". Emory Elliott, University Professor, University of California-Riverside