Comments on: Wieland or the Transformation: An American Tale by Charles Brockden Brown http://www.bibliographing.com/2008/09/15/wieland-or-the-transformation-an-american-tale-by-charles-brockden-brown_review/ Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:14:07 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: nicole http://www.bibliographing.com/2008/09/15/wieland-or-the-transformation-an-american-tale-by-charles-brockden-brown_review/comment-page-1/#comment-566 nicole Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:08:28 +0000 http://lifeinbooks.wordpress.com/?p=299#comment-566 You know, your comment just sparked some fresh thoughts on this. The house, or the estate rather, really is a character. There is a main house where the family lives growing up; the father has his episode in an outbuilding that's sort of like a gazebo in my mind (but more permanent); and Clara lives in a separate, smaller house on the grounds when she grows up and Wieland has a family. The isolated rural locale is definitely a convention of the Gothic, but normally that would translate to a desolate and quasi-abandoned castle or similar. So this is another way in which the Gothic is transposed to the US. Rural and isolated, and part of a large holding, but here it is more like the recently built (within one generation) homestead of a prosperous American. Thanks for stopping by, what an interesting thought that is! You know, your comment just sparked some fresh thoughts on this. The house, or the estate rather, really is a character. There is a main house where the family lives growing up; the father has his episode in an outbuilding that’s sort of like a gazebo in my mind (but more permanent); and Clara lives in a separate, smaller house on the grounds when she grows up and Wieland has a family.

The isolated rural locale is definitely a convention of the Gothic, but normally that would translate to a desolate and quasi-abandoned castle or similar. So this is another way in which the Gothic is transposed to the US. Rural and isolated, and part of a large holding, but here it is more like the recently built (within one generation) homestead of a prosperous American.

Thanks for stopping by, what an interesting thought that is!

]]> By: nateG http://www.bibliographing.com/2008/09/15/wieland-or-the-transformation-an-american-tale-by-charles-brockden-brown_review/comment-page-1/#comment-565 nateG Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:59:38 +0000 http://lifeinbooks.wordpress.com/?p=299#comment-565 Excellent review. Found it and your blog via Library Thing. It was several years ago that I read Wieland for a class, but I remember really liking the house and feeling it was almost a character. I think the whole novel takes place in and nearby it, I can't recall descriptions but I had a potent sense of their universe being paradoxically limited in the physical world while of course broad in the world of the mind. As you placed the book in the Gothic tradition I suppose the isolated rural locale is a convention? The book was presented my professor as an example of the conflict between enlightenment and romantic ideas evident in the writing of the time. Excellent review. Found it and your blog via Library Thing. It was several years ago that I read Wieland for a class, but I remember really liking the house and feeling it was almost a character. I think the whole novel takes place in and nearby it, I can’t recall descriptions but I had a potent sense of their universe being paradoxically limited in the physical world while of course broad in the world of the mind. As you placed the book in the Gothic tradition I suppose the isolated rural locale is a convention? The book was presented my professor as an example of the conflict between enlightenment and romantic ideas evident in the writing of the time.

]]> By: nicole http://www.bibliographing.com/2008/09/15/wieland-or-the-transformation-an-american-tale-by-charles-brockden-brown_review/comment-page-1/#comment-160 nicole Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:35:46 +0000 http://lifeinbooks.wordpress.com/?p=299#comment-160 You bet I have—it's my favorite Austen. I love Gothic novels, but I love them because they are a bit ridiculous. You bet I have—it’s my favorite Austen. I love Gothic novels, but I love them because they are a bit ridiculous.

]]> By: AllisonMarieCat http://www.bibliographing.com/2008/09/15/wieland-or-the-transformation-an-american-tale-by-charles-brockden-brown_review/comment-page-1/#comment-159 AllisonMarieCat Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:33:37 +0000 http://lifeinbooks.wordpress.com/?p=299#comment-159 Fantastic review...the book was in my amazon cart before I even finished reading it :) Off topic, but have you read Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey? Very funny parody of the gothic novel. Fantastic review…the book was in my amazon cart before I even finished reading it :)

Off topic, but have you read Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey? Very funny parody of the gothic novel.

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