The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-10-08
BROWN HAS
NOT SURVIVED

in Plot and Characterization and
Lacking in Breadth.
Whv has Charles Brockden Brown
not lived? That Is, why does the
mountaineering reading puoHc
neglect the literary work OF Brown
vet read the writings of Browns lead
inc English contemporaries such as
Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen, or
the works Of an early American writer
such as Benjamin Franklin! Inc
answer to these questions IS by no
means easy; for while We all recoe-
nize the fact that work mas
grave technical errors, while we ad-
NIT that it is decidedly second-rate
from a purely literary standpoint, tn!S
certainly does not explain why the
work should not be popular. Brown
is a bad technician; SO Is ChaFiot.e
BrOnte. Browns work Is lacking IN
the highest literary quality; SO is
that Of Charles Reade and Wllkle
Collins. And yet while the novels OF
Charles Brockden Brown are allowed
to accumulate dust and cobWebs, the
tales of Miss Bronte and Reade and
Collins are read almost as widely
as eagerly today as half a century
ago. We must, then, seek some other
explanation for Browns n~on-popular-
ity: nor shall we find this explanation
by dismissing Brown with the state
ment that his work is lacking IN
good qualities; for it is not. BROWNS
situations and plots are original to a
striking degree; his stories are often
interesting to the point Of most in
tense excitement; and occasionally
his nature descriptions are almost
as lavish as are the most elaborate
descriptions by Mrs. Radcliffe. But
Brockden Browns plots will not mold
water" as will the plots Of Sir Walter
Scott: his characters are p1tlaoly weak
and absurd in comparison with the
best characters which Jane Austen
has created; and his message 70 the
world was certainly neither SO i'm
portant nor so broad in it's appear as
was the message of Franklin.
Let us consider Browns weaknesses.
one by one-here we are considering
him from the standpoint Of popu-
| larity, not literary eXcel!ence-exam-
lining first the weakness in his plots.
| Here are a few Of the gross improba-
bilities, not to say impossibilities, with
which he works out his situations: In
Edgar Huntly, a somnambullst visits
the same spot every night until ne
is caught, suspected Of murder, and
Ormond, a family of three subsist for
three months on three dollars worth
Of Indian meal; in Wieland, an ex-
enplary citizen murders his Wife and
children out Of obedience to the
voice of God (which, in an a~trocious
anticlimax, turns out to be the voice
Of a rascally VentriloQuist who had
nothing to gain by perpetrating this
heinous trick.
Having already, in our considera-
ton of plot, seen how Browns char
acters act on occasion, we may study
them further by observing how they
talk. Here is a typical dialogue
from Arthur Mcryyn:
Cannot you conjecture in what
way this volume has disappeared?"
mo. Why, Of all his volumes, this
only should have vanished, was ar
inexplicab1e enigma"
"Perhaps it is less important to
know how it was removed, than by
whom it is now possessed"
"Unquestionably; and yet, unles:
that knowledge enables me to regain
the possession, it will be useless"
1t will be seen that fourteen Pc
cent Of the words in this bit Of con.
v~ersation are Of three or more syl
tables, that there are two words fly,
syllables each in length, and that tn,
passage shows two studied avoidance:
J of ending a sentence with an in
f~1nitive. 1t is difficult to believe tina
, two Americans. even Philadelphian
of a century ago, could have been 8,
stllted in common conversation. Blu
; Is Dy no means the WOrS
crime Of speech which can be lai,
: at the door Of Browns characters
+ for If a New England clergyman O
the seventeenth century were to b
, placed in a continuous-speech-endur
+ nee contest with one Of Brockdel
: Browns characters, it is safe to wage
. that the Brown character would max
a very creditable showing. Thi
. point becomes perfectly obvious
, when we realize that in one plac
:, Edgar Huntly talks for fourtee,
I pages, without even stopping to re
s gain his breath: imagine such
speech delivered by an actor on tn
stage.-and Edgar Is only a slight
ly better talker than Arthur Mer
vyn.
Browns subject-matter may b
. dismissed with a few words. Oh
viously, such topics as somnambulisu
ventriloquism, and yellow-feyer, how
ever interesting they may be to spe
cialiSfe and to morhid1y inciipod -.