Ormond; or, the Secret Witness: With Related Texts

Description

Brown's Ormond, set in Philadelphia after the American Revolution, confronts popular societal debates of the period, including women's education and marriage, and focuses on a young woman, Constantia, who struggles in the midst of family financial ruin and a yellow fever epidemic. Similar to Brown's other novels like Wieland, Edgar Huntly, and Arthur Mervyn, Ormond is often considered a gothic novel because it explores themes such as murder, disease, and sensationalized romance.

Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) is an important figure in Gothic literature, credited with writing one of the first American Gothic novels. He was born in Pennsylvania to a Quaker family and originally trained to become a lawyer. Unable to apply the Gothic European settings of crumbling castles to America, he relocated his tales to rural locales, but maintained the same chilling atmosphere within his stories. Philip Barnard is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Kansas. Stephen Shapiro is Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.

Philip Barnard and Stephen Shapiro have produced an awesome edition of Brown's Ormond by providing copious explanatory notes and helpful documentation of the essential historical context of feminist, radical, egalitarian, and abolitionist expression. Oh, ye patriots, read it and learn! --Peter Linebaugh, University of Toledo