Edgar Huntly

"Edgar Huntly" is a gripping novel set in rural Pennsylvania during the 1780s, exploring themes such as sleepwalking, murder, and frontier violence. The protagonist, Edgar Huntly, an ordinary citizen, is shaken in his perception and memory by the traumatic experiences he witnesses. His encounter with Clithero Edny, a mysterious Irish immigrant with a violent past, leads to unpredictable and catastrophic consequences. Huntly's obsession with Edny places both men in physical and psychological danger, unsettling both the colonial territories of the Delaware Basin and Huntly's own mental state. Author Charles Brockden Brown transfers the European form of the gothic novel to the United States, creating one of the most exciting and philosophically challenging novels of early American literature. This Broadview edition includes a comprehensive collection of historical materials on topics such as the Gothic and the Sublime, sleepwalking, captivity narratives, and early American literary nationality.