Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810)

This short unfinished work written in the very early 1800s is the author's prequel to his most noted novel Wieland, published a few years earlier. It concerns the back story of one of the main three protagonists in that novel, Carwin, including how he developed his ability to imitate and throw voices. Carwin falls in with the mysterious Ludloe/Ludlow (the spelling varies during the book) who seems to be the key to some strange secret society, whose aims are rather unclear. It's all rather confusing and ends abruptly.… (more)

This 1798 novel has been described as the first American gothic novel. The language is very dense and complicated and it took me some 5 days to read despite being only 200 pages long. The story involves the relationships between a small group of mostly related people and some bizarre incidents over disembodied voices and strange flashes that drive the group apart and lead to tragedy. I found the solution to the mystery rather unclear and unconvincing, and wasn't sure what to make of Carwin's role. The last few pages about the story of some minor characters was an odd way to end the book as well.… (more)

Written in 1799 this "gothic" tale is set in Philadelphia. It's labeled as gothic, however, I don't find a lot of the normal gothic elements contained within. It is the story of Constantia, a single women who cares for her down and out, blind father. There are scoundrels along the way and she deals with each righteously. She may be a bit naive, or is she just very humble? This was a very slow-paced book which focused on character development. Written as 3 separate works (Vol 1, Vol 11 and Vol 111). However, they must be read in order and completely before the story can be understood. They are all free on Kindle. 348 pages… (more)