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freezing weather but are saved by Mr
Curling, who takes Eliza in temporarily. Her uncle, Philip Hadwin, refuses to give Eliza her inheritance. At this point, Mervyn returns to the city to help Clemenza Lodi, whom he had met when she was pregnant by Welbeck. He finds her living with her dying baby in the house of Mrs Villars, a prostitute. He meets a young widow in the same house, Achsa Fielding, who had no idea her friends were prostitutes. Mrs Fielding is of Portuguese-Jewish-British heritage. She has been described as "the first American Jew to appear in American fiction".
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thief and a forger, who wants Mervyn to work for him, but Mervyn escapes and is helped by Susan Hadwin. In return, he helps
Wallace whom he had met earlier and who is Susan's fiancé and has yellow fever. As a result, Mervyn is infected. This takes the story to the point where Mervyn is rescued by Dr Stevens.
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Mervyn was brought up on a farm in
Philadelphia. His father married again and Mervyn did not get on with his stepmother, so left for the city. He loses his money on the way and starts begging in the city. He is locked in a dark room by someone he meets, Wallace, but escapes. He then meets Welbeck, a
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Dr
Stevens meets Arthur Mervyn, who has yellow fever, and invites Mervyn to stay with him until he recovers. Once Mervyn is better, Dr Stevens's friend Mr Wortley recognises Mervyn and reacts with displeasure. Mervyn begins to recount his history in an effort to clear his name in the eyes of Dr.
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Following this, Mervyn tells Dr
Stevens what happened at the Hadwin farm. On getting there, he discovered that almost everyone except Eliza and Susan has died of yellow fever. Susan dies the same day. Mervyn tries to house Eliza at a neighbor's farm, but the neighbor refuses. They almost die in
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Mervyn "rescues" Eliza from boredom by taking her to live with Mrs
Fielding. He realizes that he is in love with Mrs Fielding, and stares up at her window at night. She is frightened but recognizes him. The next day they admit their feelings to each other and agree to marry. Mervyn becomes an
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After he gets better, Mervyn insists on returning to Susan Hadwin's farm to make sure everyone is safe. He doesn't return for weeks. Eventually he summons Dr
Stevens to the debtors' prison to tend to Welbeck, who is ill there. Before Welbeck dies, he gives Mervyn about 40,000 pounds.
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The novel generally received mixed reviews. Some scholars have argued that Mervyn's character inhabits the grey area between hero and villain, or that he lacks "the force of will to be either".
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style and subject matter, and is recognized as one of the most influential works of
American and Philadelphia Gothic literature. It started earlier as a serial in Philadelphia's
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Weekly
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decided to issue the book himself. The novel also includes the
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between August–October 1793 as an important plot element.
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Arthur Mervyn; or; Memoirs of the Year 1793. Second Part
368:"Arthur Mervyn | Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia"
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49:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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333:"Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the Year 1793"
605:Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker
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597:Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the Year 1793
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616:(serialized from June 1799 to June 1800)
573:Sky-Walk; or, The Man Unknown to Himself
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589:Ormond; or, the Secret Witness
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451:"Arthur Mervyn's Revolutions"
422:Whitfield, Stephen J (1999).
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391:Roberts, Siân Silyn (2009).
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225:. Published in 1799,
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41:Please help
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630:Jane Talbot
625:(June 1801)
434:4 September
407:4 September
288:Development
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559:Novels by
377:2019-10-31
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316:References
210:vi, 224 pp
69:newspapers
632:; A Novel
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