Jane Talbot

by Charles Brockden Brown

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Genres: Classics

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1801

About the author

Charles Brockden Brown (January 17, 1771 – February 22, 1810), an American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period, is generally regarded by scholars as the most ambitious and accomplished US novelist before James Fenimore Cooper. He is the most frequently studied and republished practitioner of the "early American novel," or the US novel between 1789 and roughly 1820. Although Brown was by no means the first American novelist, as some early criticism claimed, the breadth and complexity of his achievement as a writer in multiple genres (novels, short stories, essays and periodical writings of every sort, poetry, historiography, reviews) makes him a crucial figure in US literature and culture of the 1790s and first decade of the 19th century, and a significant public intellectual in the wider Atlantic print culture and public sphere of the era of the French Revolution.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A love story told all in letters. The lovers face obstacles, keeping them apart. The ending is what you'd expect. Interesting, but the plot bogged down in the middle. At least it was a bit different in the way it was written.

[Mark Stephenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of 70 letters which tell the touching love story of the title character, a young American widow, and Henry Colden, the only son of a wealthy but imperious sire who opposes their union. The events narrated occur in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Japan, Java and Europe of the 1790's. Another major character is Jane's adoptive mother who abhors Henry as an unbeliever and (she supposes) profligate who would ruin her daughter. I can't get over how much I admire the first (and in many respects to this day the greatest) of the Great American Novelists, Charles Brockden Brown!

[Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ya it was fine

[Justinian · Rating 3 out of 5]

2019 – 09 – Jane Talbot. Charles Brockden Brown (Author) 1801. 242 Pages.

Another in my Philadelphia Gothic series … this one is an epistolary novel consisting of about 70 letters written between some half a score of individuals. This is the least classically “Gothic” of the set so far. There was for me a jarring transition in this a book about 1/3 of the way through. It is hard to do an epistolary novel well. This one is good, better than Dracula in terms of using the format. What this book does well is give some insight into the context of real life in the late 18th and earliest 19th century. For the book to work the author has to present a world and people that the audience is not alienated from and can to a degree identify with. In many ways this strength for the readers of that era makes it a liability for modern readers on this side of the “Victorian Wall.” That mode and view of life and normality can be a challenge. Additionally the delicious vocabulary of the era can trip up modern readers who live in an era of reduced vocabulary. These words are delicious and add layers of meaning important in that era that are regretfully lost in our modern society. The author as he did in “Wieland” uses a female character as a narrator for some of the text which is surprising and provides an interesting look at perceived gender views and expectations of that era.