Ormond

by Charles Brockden Brown, Mary Chapman (Editor)

Brown is often called the first American novelist. Originally published in 1799, Ormond was inspired by enlightenment philosophers and Gothic writers. The novel engages with many of the period’s popular debates about women’s education, marriage, and the morality of violence, while the plot revolves around the Gothic themes of seduction, murder, incest, impersonation, romance and disease. Set in post-revolutionary Philadelphia, Ormond examines the prospects of the struggling nation by tracing the experiences of Constantia, a young virtuous republican who struggles to survive when her father’s business is ruined by a confidence man, and her friends and neighbors are killed by a yellow fever epidemic.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, School, Gothic, Read For School, Literature, 18th Century

301 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1799

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 4 out of 5]

The title of this book should really be "Constance", as it follows all the trials she must go through in her life. A strong character, she never falls to self-pity but instead finds ways to improve her situation on her own terms. She doesn't rely on the men in her life to save her, but finds ways to save herself. It's amazing this book was written by a man so long ago, because of the positive independent female characters. The title character, Ormond, doesn't appear until nearly half way through the book. He has a significant role to play, leading to a suspense-filled ending. This book is definitely worth reading.

[Aaron Puerzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for class— its introduction called it the finest work of American literature pre-Moby Dick, so I had high hopes. It was convoluted but for the most part engaging after the first 50 pages, and I found attentive reading to be rewarding. I can certainly see its literary importance but it wasn't as stirring as I hoped it could've been.

[Wanda]

4 JUL 2014 -- recommended by Cheryl. She reads such great books. Read her review here --

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Free downloads below. Take care as there are three separate volumes. Make sure you download all three.

Volume I - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36289

Volume II - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36290

Volume III - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36291

Enjoy!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1799, this is a gothic tale that explores myriad social controversies in the intense political climate of the late eighteen century, most especially the role of women in society. The plot will keep your interest though the prose can be dense.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bad bad Ormond. Good good brown.

[H L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as great as his other stuff, but some amazing female protagonist!

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

the lesbians saved this from being completely terrible

[Bettie]

to hunt down - project gutenberg?

[Laura]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

[Reese Corrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good plot and I actually really loved the ending. Charles Brockden Brown is known for plot points that go nowhere/don’t really have much to do with the actual story so this definitely has some. Also, sometimes an explanation or conversation will go on wayyyyy too long and be over explained so I had to dock some points. Those parts are difficult to get through.

[Nikki Sojkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like everything happens in the last 5 pages with an absolutely absurd twist

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea what was happening at any point in this novel but I'm ok with it.

[Breana Bowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for school

[Justinian · Rating 4 out of 5]

2019-12 - Ormond; Or, The Secret Witness. Charles Brockden Brown. 1799. 301 Pages

Another in the Philadelphia Gothic Readings for this year. Another book written by Charles Brockden Brown with the narrator being a woman. This is the second of the seven published novels (I have read five of the seven). While reading this novel I began to notice names and specific objects that were in other of his novels. I began to wonder if this was deliberate or coincidence. This is what sparked me on my 2020 quest to become a Charles Brockden Brown Scholar, because I could not find one to answer my queries. This book follows the ups and downs of a family as emblematic of society. The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 figures prominently and the book is an excellent description of societal norms, values, and biases of the era … being written a few scant years after the epidemic itself. The author was a proponent of using primary sources for history and blending history with imagination to create historical fiction mostly with a didactic reason. To that end this book has made seriously consider if we should start to consider that literature written in the time period it is set as another type of primary source material. It often provides a better sense of manners, biases, and operation of a society. Otherwise we are left with official documents, newspapers, and letters as parts of a puzzle that need to be cobbled together, I am beginning to think … that in some of these novels and short stories there is large amounts of historical insight and information that is useful for gaining a more nuanced and everyday understanding of this tumultuous time period. To that end this book does an excellent job of looking at the tension of a society in transition from one type of society to another. It does not, as Jane Austen’s work tends to do limit itself to the upper middle strata but delves down into the “meaner classes” as well. This gives a fuller picture of the currents of change. It certainly change dhow I read and viewed this book as I was reading it. Of course one can still read I as just a good story.

[Steven Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this novel and Brown, our first American writer. What I enjoyed was his story of Constantia Dudley and her battle against an American society that besieges her world of domesticity. Dealing with embezzlers, a helpless father, a Philadelphia caught in a murderous yellow fever epidemic (which Brown actually lived through), and then her poverty, Constantia is a strong, determined woman. It's fun that she's the main character; and not a simpering, tidy one, either.
I enjoy Brown's gothic descriptions of a world turned upside down, and yet along with his literary world is a real-life one of death, deceit, and corruption. Constantia meets Ormond, a mysterious, Lovelace-like figure, and seems her salvation, but she finds he has his own demons...and is a member of the Illuminati. I find it most interesting that Ormond describes covert ways of controlling society that seem almost Orwellian.
It's a wild ride, and when meeting Martinette, a revolutionary from France, Constantia examines new ways of gender power and hope. Constantia hopes to be reunited with her friend Sophia Westwyn, who has gone to Europe and is under the thrall of her mother. It's really an exciting book, and reading this made me a devoted Brown fan. The preceding introduction is a good examination of the feminist and psychological issues in Ormond, and I admire how the final scenes describe an eerie waiting for Ormond to appear, where Constantia and Ormond will fight to the death. Sometimes the prose gets a bit over literary, but it's an exciting story, and really should be read more. As with Edgar Huntly, I wrote a screenplay of Ormond because it has such strong visual images in it.

[Mark Stephenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the title character is very significant and well delineated, the heroine of this brilliant and touching novel is Constance Dudley - as told by her friend Sophia Westwyn. Set in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia of the 1790's and published in 1799, this recounts the fall into penury of the Dudley family victimized by a trusted employee who embezzles huge sums and leaves them with unpayable debts. Moving to Philadelphia, they endure the loss of their mother, a yellow fever epidemic, rigors of winter and the exactions of landlords - kept afloat by the efforts and intelligence of their daughter Constance. Their fortunes abruptly change when Ormond, a wealthy military projector and conscientious atheist, falls in love with Constance and helps them obtain a measure of justice from Thomas Craig, who had victimized them. Unfortunately for Ormond, who has given up his mistress and hopes Constance will take her place, all his formidable talents and devious efforts are insufficient to sway Constance from her virtuous life. His self-centred morality leads to his destruction. My favorite so far from the great CBB.

[Auntie Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

La vera protagonista di questa storia è Costantia. Una donna forte per quei tempi, che ha saputo reagire con forza e senso del dovere ad ogni ostacolo che la vita le ha posto di fronte. Nè la peste, nè la miseria hanno corrotto il suo carattere. Chi è in realtà Ormond? La vita di Costantia e quella di Ormond sono raccontate da un'amica di lei, che con un po' di romanticismo post rivoluzione riesce a tenere il lettore sempre attento.

[Antonia Yuan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting female protagonist.

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ]

One thing I've learned about reading old books like these is that annotated and scholarly versions are crucial. I began reading this as a PDF scan of the original addition, with only one or two author's notes appended. There are, however, so many references to events and people and publications of the era that I eventually realized I was missing out on a lot of the subtext. Purchasing and re-reading from the beginning a scholarly edition confirmed this.

This book is remarkable. It has a lot of paradoxes about revolutionary violence. Its depictions of Philadelphia's Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 is haunting. And, I think much more than Wieland, it makes reference to utopianism and the Illuminati scare of the reactionary 1790s. There is also much about labor in here, and a significant examination of identities both individual and collective, and the idea that "sympathies" and emotions create the bond between the two. I look forward to beginning my dissertation with this text, and to eventually teaching it as well.

[Gwendolyn Neal]

Had to skim the last half. I like the characters and the detail with which they're rendered, and some scenes have a real gothic shine to them which I would have loved to see more often. But Brown is relentlessly, mercilessly wordy (entire paragraphs will go by where every sentence is a reformulation of the first), and his insistence on pushing a variety of personal pet scientific theories through his fiction is distracting if kind of funny. Several pages are dedicated to extolling the virtues of Polenta, and he never misses an opportunity to remind the reader that fear and panic render otherwise benign diseases fatal. Weird read.