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Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." --Therese Littleton
Book Description
Stephen Hawking has earned a reputation as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. In this landmark volume, Professor Hawking shares his blazing intellect with nonscientists everywhere, guiding us expertly to confront the supreme questions of the nature of time and the universe. Was there a beginning of time? Will there be an end? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? From Galileo and Newton to modern astrophysics, from the breathtakingly cast to the extraordinarily tiny, Professor Hawking leads us on an exhilarating journey to distant galaxies, black holes, alternate dimensions--as close as man has ever ventured to the mind of God. From the vantage point of the wheelchair from which he has spent more than twenty years trapped by Lou Gehrig's disease, Stephen Hawking has transformed our view of the universe. Cogently explained, passionately revealed, A Brief History of Time is the story of the ultimate quest for knowledge: the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space.
Customer Reviews:
This book is a fake!.......2007-10-01
As a physicist I am flabbergasted and slightly depressed by the success of this book. First of all this book presents as if they were equally certain some pieces of orthodox science together with some of the author's dubious speculations. The lay reader is not told which are which. Secondly, the author obviously has no knowledge of the actual history of physics and yet he shamelessly "describes" it to the reader.
Hawking seems to have gathered together all the bad cliches about various physical issues and has taken out all the valuable ideas. He explains nothing, he just asserts that "we physicists know that..., we physicists have demonstrated that...". I cannot see how anyone can actually learn anything about physics from this book, about why we know what we know. And yet, judging from the amount of praise this book receives, it seems that quite a lot of people have fallen under the spell that they have been allowed access to some secret. They haven't and I find this trickery immoral.
Quantum physics and astrophysics are really interesting. They don't deserve to be thrashed in this unashamed manner. If you want to learn something about physics, there are other books which do a much better job, for example Asimov's Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos.
Author - a true genius.......2007-09-22
Stephen Hawking is a true genius. Although I don't understand everything he writes, all-in-all this book gives one the understanding of how wonderfully made the universe is.
Fascinating.......2007-08-24
I found this book to be ingenious yet accessible to the average reader, which is what I believe Hawking set out to accomplish. Great food for thought in my opinion.
TERRIBLE digital transfer by "Phoenix Audio".......2007-08-10
It's a great book by Hawking, but this product is just a reproduction of something by Hawking/Jackson that we already know is great. So what sort of job does this product do of delivering one of my favorite audio books? Not a very good one.
The original recording sounds fine, but this production from 2005 sounds like it was converted to a low bit rate at some point during editing, and probably had a poor noise removal job done as well. For the benefit of removing possibly a little weak static in the background, we get to listen to a robotic Jackson for 5 hours. It sounds similar to an early digital cell phone with a choppy feel and many T's and S's muffled.
There really isn't any reason I can see for this to not be a perfect reproduction of earlier digital versions. Old bootlegs floating about the internet sound better. Maybe "Phoenix Audio" should have just grabbed those to print, and left all of that tricky audio work to the more competent civilian sector.
A well written classic.......2007-08-01
I have a stack of these :The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe,Cosmic Code and In Search/big Bang: /, so I can compare and contrast.
There is material on black holes here that isn't covered as well in the others. I still would wish that all these authors would put in more of the real equations and less of the dumbing down. One point is that people not able to understand this kind of book, probably won't understand no matter how simple you make the text. Maybe one should make effective use of your time in writing and concentrate on those who will understand and use the results.
Book Description
Stephen Hawking has earned a reputation as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. In this landmark volume, Professor Hawking shares his blazing intellect with nonscientists everywhere, guiding us expertly to confront the supreme questions of the nature of time and the universe. Was there a beginning of time? Will there be an end? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? From Galileo and Newton to modern astrophysics, from the breathtakingly cast to the extraordinarily tiny, Professor Hawking leads us on an exhilarating journey to distant galaxies, black holes, alternate dimensions--as close as man has ever ventured to the mind of God. From the vantage point of the wheelchair from which he has spent more than twenty years trapped by Lou Gehrig's disease, Stephen Hawking has transformed our view of the universe. Cogently explained, passionately revealed, A Brief History of Time is the story of the ultimate quest for knowledge: the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space.
Customer Reviews:
Finally.......2007-06-02
As a confirmed layman fan of all things science related I have, over a span of 40+ years, read and studied concepts related to Special and General Relativity. I picked up Brief History of Time when it came out and simply couldn't digest it. More reading, more study, more thinking and Voila! I picked up Hawking's book again and read it with understanding! With this book, Dr. Hawking has helped me pull all of that study together into a cohesive conceptual body (no small task!). If you have pursued this subject in a similar manner then you will be delighted with this treatment of Relativity and beyond. Now, it is on to String Theory, Dark Energy, Dark Matter and more Hawking books to help explain them.
The Original (has introduction by Carl Sagan and missing Chapter 10).......2007-04-15
For those who thought they knew the mind of God
A Brief History of Time (ABHOT) has been with me since its first publication. I now feel, after nearly 20 years of it as a passive hobby, to be able to comprehend and explain what it means to me. It is a deeply personal voyage that I am most glad to have undertaken.
Firstly to call this just a science book, a view I once held, is an understatement. It is both a scientific presentation and the exposure of the corruption of minds that submit completely to a mystery answer for mystery questions. You cannot separate the two in this book. They are interlinked by ABHOT's critic of the persistence of some members of mankind to maintain a wanton lack of knowledge.
This armchair sufficiency in a mystery answer must be combated at all costs in order for us to stop denying that we possess a large brain. If we invoke the mystery explanation as the answer for anything then God just might as well have finished with the spinal cord which would have been enough for us. We are faced with the facts. Creation happened and we want to know how. Hawking knows how.
Since this book deals specifically with theological questions and scientific ones it would be best to start with the theology problems posed by Hawking (the word God appears 40 times). Hawking claims that in 1981, at the end of a conference on cosmology organized by the Jesuits in the Vatican that they "...were granted an audience with the Pope. He told us that it was all right to study the evolution of the universe after the big bang, but we should not inquire into the big bang itself because that was the moment of Creation and therefore the work of God." Whether the Pope said this or not is up for debate (the Pope has made official declarations on this matter and they do not feature this element of non-inquiry) but Hawking thinks he knows how this God went about his business. The book builds up to the explanation of the universe starting with this critic of the Church in Chapter 8 - Origins and Fate of the Universe, which describes the history of time as we know it and gives the Church a nudge in the process.
It is obvious that Hawking, strictly using the scientific method, describes the history of time without invoking God or a mystery. Hawking shows us that he knows things about how creation came about and that at no point is an intelligence being used to describe the cosmos. This veil, he believes, was removed long ago with Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Einstein and now once more by himself.
This is not the first time the Catholic Church is featured in the book. It has a historical relationship with cosmology and a pretty poor one when it comes to Galileo who effectively ended the dark ages by reviving Greek mathematics and physics with an obvious fact that the heaven's change. The Church simply got this badly wrong whatever way you try to cut it (how can God's representatives get it so badly wrong?). The Earth is not the centre of universe. How does the Catholic Church keep their claim to God's representative on Earth if other people are explaining creation without recourse to a mystery? Hawking gives you problem equation that the Church is now dealing with. That equation is... the more we explain things, the less there is for God to do. God = ?
Now we get down to the brass tacks after finishing with this quick lesson about a major negative in theology. How does Hawking know there is less for God to do in his model of the universe? The answer is in the laws that exist and that remain unbroken. Things are the way they are. If God created the universe, he did it this way, the one we observe, the one with laws he doesn't break.
According to Hawking if we know what these laws are then we understand everything there is about how the universe governs itself. This means predicting what it will do. So how do they do that? How do these men of science come up with such outstanding prophecies! Probably the best way to go about ABHOT is to break it down into easy to understand sections.
Contrary to book blurbs, even though this is made for the layman, you can't do it with just this book alone unless you have a background in studying physics. Intense study over the period of several months, years even, as was my case, may be required.
Introduction by Carl Sagan.
Chapter 1 - Our Picture of the Universe
This chapter is easy to understand. It deals with the history of mankind's perception of the universe and gives special note to the Catholic Church's dealings with Copernicus and Galileo. In short the net result is that Churches tell us how to get to heaven while scientists tell us how the heavens work. The Earth actually goes around the sun.
Chapter 2 - Space and Time
Quickly combining Newtonian Gravity with Einstein's relativity we are given examples of spacetime models to explain the speed of light, how time can dilate, light cones and the geometry of spacetime according to relativity (imagine a rubber mesh with balls creating dips in the mesh that in turn create contours, called geodesics, for objects to follow naturally). Mass grips space by telling it how to curve, space grips mass by telling it how to move.*
*If this Chapter does not make sense then read "Introducing Newton and Classical Physics" by William Rankin for Newtonian Physics and "Introducing Relativity" by Bruce Bassett.
Chapter 3 - The Expanding Universe
Astronomical observations by Hubble (has the telescope named after him) prove that the universe is expanding which means at one time in the past it was all together. Penzias and Wilson in 1965 discovered background radiation noise from the big bang. Friedman's projected model of the universe is analysed and Hawking introduces three outcomes where two expands forever and one collapses in eventually, from a big bang to a big crunch.
Chapter 4 - The Uncertainty Principle
This chapter quickly covers three important scientific experiments (blackbody radiation, photoelectric effect and the double-slit experiment problem) that led to the development of Quantum Mechanics and the uncertainty principle that the process of measuring particles on the quantum scale can alter some their attributes*.
*While this chapter can be understood somewhat on its own, it is terribly short. Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" explains it a whole lot better in Chapter 4 - Microscopic Weirdness.
Chapter 5 - Elementary Particles and the Forces of Nature
**Stop Here**. You are not going to understand this part. You could skip this section but then you will not understand Chapter 7. "Introducing Quantum Theory" by J. P. McEvoy does it a lot better and also compliments the Greene book. Spend as long as you need to get an understanding of this. Relativity and quantum mechanics are not unified by the model presented by Hawking (gravity is not unified with the strong or electroweak force). Thus relativity describes macro events, while Quantum Mechanics describes subatomic particle events.
Chapter 6 - Black Holes
Hawking describes the history of Black Holes, what they are and how they advanced our understanding of quantum mechanics and relativity. Keywords are John Wheeler, Chandrasekhar, Oppenheimer and Cygus X-1.
Chapter 7 - Black Holes Ain't So Black
Hawking describes the dynamics of the black hole incorporating quantum mechanics. This section is why Chapter 5 needs to be understood very well.
Chapter 8 - The Origin and Fate of the Universe
This is the big description of how we came to be from the beginnings up until now with the predicted future of the universe which is described as a finite without boundary model. Keywords are Gamow, inflation and Guth.
Chapter 9 - The Arrow of Time
This is amazing. Here Hawking answers the question about Entropy and why the macro universe is gravitating towards disorder in the system it is in. Call an apple order and imagine all the possibilities of a disordered apple. There are much more possibilities of disorder than order. However since our universe was ordered according to the big bang event then the disorder model when collapsed backwards reveals events becoming more ordered as they return to their original state.*
*This chapter excludes how systems can become more ordered in systems that are not closed such as our planet which did not generate or destroy energy or change the balance of energy in the universe because the energy used in our evolution was transformed finally into heat which leaves the planet and goes back into the universe.
Chapter 10 - Wormholes and Time Travel
This chapter did not appear in the original edition. It appears in the new one. Einstein-Rosen bridges are more in-depth in Greene's work.
Chapter 10 (11 in new book) - The Unification of Physics
Hawking points to strings as a possible unification theory. The prediction looks good. Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" is a whole book about this. Relativity and quantum mechanics are unified by the models found in superstring theory (see M-Theory and Edward Witten).
Chapter 11 (12 in new book) - Conclusion
Hawking sums up his thoughts.
Glossary
You will reference this constantly to remember important terms. Put it to great use.
Ultimately Hawking does not say God does not exist (that would impossible to prove) but he can certainly critic those who think they know his mind. Wouldn't you think that if anyone was going to dictate how his world works that it would be the Church he started? Consult Galileo on attempts to show them how it worked.
Hawking is obviously the best explanation for creation since the writers of Genesis redacted the creation account from the Enuma Elish somewhere over 2200 years ago.
Living at the end of the 20th century meant being privy to facts that no one else had understood before. I only got it in the 21st. Why settle for anything less than the truth?
Thank you Mr. Hawking for explaining creation like no one else has done before.
Take a little time to understand time..........2006-05-30
This book was written in 1987, and since then others have made developments in physics available to the layman. (See Brian Greene's Elegant Universe, and I believe Hawking has an updated version of Brief History out now.) But this book became available from a friend and I jumped at the opportunity to read it.
Hawking's writing style is very reader-friendly, and generally in layman's terms. There are no equations in this book, although he constantly refers to crunching numbers with relativistic and quantum mechanical equations. The reason why this book remains a good read is because it explains how our understanding of our universe developed from the time of Aristotle through Copernicus, Galileo, Einstein and the scientists of the 20th century. Hawking does a great job explaining how our notions changed as relativity and quantum mechanics were shown to be valid models of physical behavior.
It seems that Hawking's passion is for black holes, but his discussion of them seems very abstract to me. I was more captivated by one of the final chapters called the Arrow of Time. He poses the question of why the thermodynamic, psychological, and cosmological arrows of time run in the same direction. In other words, why does it take energy to create order, why don't we remember the future, and why is the universe expanding? Would it be plausible the other way around? There are lots of intriguing ideas in this brief survey - highly recommended.
Cosmology.......2006-04-07
This is a great book for the non-physicist. If you are interested in the whole process of the creation of our universe this book is a great source from science perspective. Yet I think the cosmology found in Religion is much richer, in particular that of the Kabala or Jewish Mysticism. Unfortunately there aren't many books out there dealing with the topic. And both areas, the scientific and the Kabalistic, need or the math or the Hebrew to really go into them. I think Hawking really made a great job presenting an accessible book, close to the complete mathematical view, and though we lose out on the lack of knowledge of math, we gain from his layman presentation. If you want his counter part in Religion read The Structure of Creation by S. Weiss.
Shock and awe.......2006-04-01
Hawking explains just about everything in the universe and in a way that doesn't require a PhD to grasp. Bending of space time, multimple dimension and the freakiness of black holes these days are concepts that lay people can understand. Fascination among the general populace is good for science and it's hitting new heights. For me, books like "A Brief History" are more captivating than any novel.
-- Mark LaFlamme, author of "The Pink Room."
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Historia del tiempo / A Brief History of Time: del big bang a los agujeros negros / From the Big Bang to Black Holes
Stephen W. Hawking
Manufacturer: Critica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Cosmology
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ASIN: 9879317114 |
Product Description
A book of physics unlocking the secrets of the universe
Product Description
2 Book Set; a Brief History of Time From the Big Bang to Black Holes; Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays By Stephen Hawking.
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Wieland: Or The Transformation: With Memoirs Of Carwin The Biloquist: A Fragment
Charles Brockden Brown
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Brown, Charles Brockden
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ASIN: 0156966808 |
Book Description
Narrated by Clara, the only survivor of the cursed Wieland family, this Gothic tale builds in suspense to one tragic night when Clara's brother, in a divinely inspired seizure, commits an unspeakable act. Edited and with an Introduction by Fred Lewis Pattee.
Customer Reviews:
Wieland.......2001-03-14
I was required to read this novel for an American Ficiton class in college. Most students would rate required reading very low just because it is required reading. Wieland has a low rating because it deserves it, not only because it was required. As an English major I love to read but Wieland tests any readers ability and patience. Brown's writing style is comparable to James Fenimore Cooper's Deerslayer - extremely descriptive and at times, without a difinitive end. The many themes that are found in the novel are outdated to today's readers and will have little if any effect on the interest of the novel. The grotesque theme of familial murder mimicks the writing of Edgar Allan Poe. If you are a Poe fan, Wieland may interest you. For those that are not Poe or Cooper fans, I would suggest looking for reading elsewhere. Wieland is time consuming and not worth the trouble.
Book Description
A shadow falls over the Enlightenment when a stranger pays a visit in this tale of one family's slide down the slippery slope of reality. Featuring spontaneous combustion, demonic ventriloquism, murder and madness, Wieland offers a wealth of high weirdness for fans of the paranormal. The Invisible College Press is pleased to resurrect this forgotten classic of dark literature.
Customer Reviews:
I HATED IT!.......2006-03-05
In short, I HATED this book. But really, that's not fair. I shouldn't say that because even though I was 'forced' to read it for an English class, I never made it through. I think I got about 30 pages into it after maybe a week or two of trying to get involved with it. All to no avail. I hated every minute, and I wish the teacher had never assigned it.
I believe that there is a reason the name "Charles Brockden Brown" isn't nearly the household name that "Ernest Hemingway" or "Shakespeare" is.
Great Gothic!.......2005-06-15
I had never heard of Charles Brockden Brown before, until I picked up an anthology entitled _American Gothic Tales_. The excerpt from this novel intrigued and horrified me enough that I had to read the entire story. I wasn't disappointed. Ghosts, mysterious voices that drive completely pleasant, complacent people to do mad things - I read the whole thing in a few hours. His storytelling is reminescent of Poe, although that is incorrect to say, as Brown came first. A shame that no one hears about Brown, as he is definitely a classic.
Four stars out of five, because I did not care for the epilogue; it feels a little tacked on.
A Classic of American Gothic Horror.......2001-10-01
Charles Brockden Brown's importance in the field of American literature is indisputably very high; thus, how unfortunate it is that his works are so unknown to us today. Were it not for H.P. Lovecraft's mention of him in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature," I myself would remain ignorant of his very existence. Brown is arguably the father of the American novel, a brave pioneer in the era of the early Republic. This man set upon himself the noble purpose of writing fiction for a living, going against the wishes of his family and the dictates of contemporary society. Had there been no Charles Brockden Brown, there may never have been a Poe--at least, not Poe as we know him today.
The story is an Americanized Gothic romance. The spirit of Gothic literature pervades the tale, but the setting has been transferred from old castles and courtly settings to a recognizably American rural landscape which is preeminently beautiful rather than spooky. The horrors described so effectively by Brown are borne in the minds of the characters. The female protagonist Clara narrates the tortured history of her family. Her father dies mysteriously, perhaps by spontaneous combustion, ostensibly due to his failure to follow God's will in his life. She enjoys a happy adult life with her brother and his wife until a stranger named Carwin appears and quickly becomes a part of their inner circle. Carwin eventually becomes Clara's tormentor. She, her brother, and their mutual friend Pleyel all hear mysterious, unexplained voices warning them of danger and imparting fateful news on several occasions. Her brother, deeply religious like his father, is greatly affected by these phenomena--how much so we learn later in the novel. Carwin fatefully destroys Clara's life when his evil designs paint her as a harlot in Pleyel's eye. Her unrequited love for Pleyel is now met with his condemnation of her--the agony of the charges against her is particularly poignant in the early American era in which the story takes place. On the fateful night, she discovers Carwin hiding in her home, and he admits to having had murderous designs on her. Her sorrows are greatly magnified the following day by the murder of her brother's wife and five children by none other than her own beloved brother. She blames Carwin for having influenced her brother to commit murder, but we later learn that dementia itself is almost surely to blame for her brother's wrongs. Before the tale ends, she faces a confrontation with both Carwin and her murderous brother, an experience which she is fortunate to survive.
The tale itself is wonderful. The suspense Brown draws out and continually heightens is first-rate. Clara's encounters with voices and human spirits hidden in the darkness of her bedroom are spine-tingling. The language of the novel does make it a work that requires some concentration on the part of the reader and may serve to frustrate some, but I think it greatly magnifies the horrific aspects of the tale. The dialogues of the actors are admittedly overdramatic and drawn out. No one speaks in this book; rather, everyone makes speeches. The protagonist often resorts to long laments of her great woe and asks how she can possibly go on with the story. Despite such dramatics on her part, though, Clara is clearly a brave, independent woman (reflecting Brown's strong and admirable commitment to the rights of women). Overall, the tale delivers a buffet of the passive voice style of writing, which I for one refuse not to love; even the most unimportant sentences are graced with a flowery, beautiful aspect.
In terms of the Gothic element to the story, one cannot say that the supernatural aspects are wholly disproved in the end--to some extent they are, but not to such an extent that Wieland's murderous actions can be explained by them. Clearly, Wieland did hear voices other than those made by Carwin the biloquist. The air of mystery that remains about Wieland's dementia and the causes of it makes the ending more successful than I feared it would be once I learned of the power of ventriloquism exercised by Carwin to dictate many of the related events. My only complaint is with the final chapter, which is basically an epilogue in the protagonist's journal. Inexplicably, it introduces a new character to explain something about a minor character whom I frankly could not even remember.
The first solid American novel.......2000-08-14
Charles Brockden Brown has been almost completely forgotten today. Unlike the more famous James Fenimore Cooper, who is often accorded the title of the first American novelist that Brown should bear, Brown's reputation is largely borne up by those few literary critics who love the earliest roots of American fiction. "Wieland" is Brown's best novel, and still quite readable today as a Gothic novel (although the secret of the villain seems rather mundane today, as the 'power' he exhibits has been played largely for laughs since the days of vaudeville and radio). Brown was born in Philadelphia in 1771, trained in the law, was one of the first to try and make a living as a writer in the early years of the American republic, and died young in 1810. If you like Gothic novels, or you have a passion for early American literature, you will enjoy "Wieland." Myself, I prefer him to Cooper, who has been forever rendered laughable in my mind by Mark Twain's hilarious essays on Cooper's literary sins.
A curious read.......2000-05-09
This book has a very original plot line. The influence of the bazzar, mystical death of the father of this family set off much questioning and fear when similar occurances happen decades later. You will be desperatly trying to piece together what is going on as this family is ripped apart. The true cause of these events is far to bazzar to be guessed. This essencial Gothic classic can be a bit slow to read at parts, but the conclusion is well worth hanging on for.
Book Description
One of the earliest American novels, Wieland (1798) is a tale of suspense and intrigue that explores some of the most important issues vital to the survival of democracy in the new American republic.
Customer Reviews:
the early beginnings of american literature.......2001-01-01
Having to rate a book like this is no easy task. I give it four stars as a sort of average. The edition itself, with a solid introduction by Emory Eliot, is very good. The novel, like all of Brown's works, is a somewhat unsatisfying effort.
That said, let me add quickly that this novel is a must-read, without a doubt. This truly Gothic tale will keep you in suspence from start to finish--and guess what, Brown even claims a historical precedent for the narrator's brother slaughtering his wife and children. This is Real TV!
It is not a great novel (although superior to, for instance, "Edgar Huntly" and "Stephen Calvert") but it is a fascinating one. Brown was quick to jump on the bandwagon of female fiction that proved to be the bestseller in 19th century America, and this semi-epistolary tale by a female narrator is fascinating if only for the problems its form poses. For instance, its epistolary character, meant to create a sense of urgency and directness, never convinces due to its pretentious literate (read, latinate) diction and syntax. Moreover, Brown's choice of a female narrator--a man writing like a woman writing like a man--, while marketable in 1798, shows that he always bites off much more than he can chew. A much better (and earlier, 1797!) example of a female epistolary novel is Hannah W. Foster's "The Coquette," available in a wonderful edition also by the Oxford UP.
Unlike what some would have you believe, Brown is not the earliest American novelist. It is interesting to note that some of his fans claim Brown instead of Cooper, completely forgetting the books put out by female authors and read mainly by women. I might add that Brown had a male predecessor also, a namesake, William Hill Brown ("The Power of Sympathy," 1789): one shouldn't try to simplify the history of early American literature. However, to come to grips with American literature, and especially its love for the Gothic (mystery, murder, incest), "Wieland" is a great start, and this is a very good edition.
Book Description
Called a “remarkable story” by John Greenleaf Whittier and described by John Keats as “very powerful,” Wieland, Charles Brockden Brown’s disturbing 1798 tale of terror, is a masterpiece involving spontaneous combustion, disembodied voices, religious mania, and a gruesome murder based on a real-life incident.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes Wieland’s fragmentary sequel, Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist, as well as several other important but hard-to-find Brockden Brown short stories, including “Thessalonica,” “Walstein’s School of History,” and “Death of Cicero.” This collection also reproduces the newspaper account of the murder that inspired Wieland.
Customer Reviews:
An Interesting Beginning.......2007-03-17
I'm a collector of early American religious fiction, (my oldest book is from 1826) and a friend recommended "Wieland" to me as one of the earliest American novels. I found it interesting, both as an example of the early Gothic genre and as a sort of Americana.
The phrase "sort of Americana" indicates one of my issues with the book. While the protagonists are American in the sense that they are born here and the action mostly takes place here, their outlook is essentially European. None of them need to work for a living, and their life of leisure is that of European aristocrats, beautifying their estates with mock-Greek temples and pursuing European patents of nobility when older family lines are reputed to fail. Some people are merchants and others are landowners, but no one is a mere farmer or a laborer or even a doctor or lawyer.
In addition, the writing style is labored, copying the European style of works such as "The Castle of Udolfo". No word of one syllable is used when a synonym with two is available, and the more elaborate the language, the more emotional the scene. Even a reader such as myself, who enjoys orotund phraseology, finds it very heavy going.
What makes the book worth reading is the story. Based on a true incident, "Wieland" tries to understand both the external circumstances and the interior mental state of a man who commits terrible crimes for reasons of religious conviction. To accomplish this, Brown posits both an external trigger (a ventriloquist who convinces the main character that he's hearing a divine being) and a hereditary tendency, but still, the crimes and their basis seem to be, sadly, peculiarly American--based on the idea that an individual's impression of God's Will has to be more correct than law, tradition, or even the express words of the Bible. We're still getting in trouble in the same way--and sometimes to the same terrible effect.
Intellectual Gothic.......2007-01-23
These days, one rarely hears of Charles Brockden Brown unless one happens to be a literature professor/student. Brown has somehow managed to disappear from the radar, but I smell a revival in the future.
I absolutely loved this book. Not only is Wieland the first American gothic novel (1798), but it combines elements from the seduction novels that were also popular at that time. And more importantly, this work speaks to the precariousness of America as a nation at the time of writing. The book is loaded with metaphors, right down to the names of the characters.
Throughout the novel, battle lines are being drawn between religious belief and the hard science of the Enlightenment. The author, in many ways, shows us the many gradations between light and dark--but most of all--draws a very interesting parallel between Clara and Carwin, the only two narrators. "Wieland" proper is directly followed by another piece called "Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist"...you must read these two pieces in conjunction in order to realize the full gravity of Brown's genius. If you are willing to commit to a close reading, you will quickly find that things are not always what they seem. You will also likely begin to realize a bizarre parallel between the two narrators, which you may find deliciously surprising if you are anything like me.
The book was actually fashioned after a true story about a man who killed his wife and children in "the name of God." If that doesn't interest you, I don't know what does! If this book tells us anything, it is that we must rely on all of our senses, not just one, if we want to survive. In this work, characters rely heavily on hearing alone...and many pay severely for it.
The Modern Library edition is a bit expensive but it is a terrific copy and includes the actual newspaper article describing the crime---not all of the publications of Wieland do this.
The only other thing I want to mention is that there are some genuinely creepy things going on in this book, and the beauty of it is, none of it is supernatural. The psychology of man is a very complex thing, indeed, and this novel proves it.
Very satisfying and highly recommended.
the best edition of Wieland.......2005-10-11
This Modern Library edition is the finest available paperback edition of Wieland. The cover art is compelling, the margins are wide enough to notate, the paper is of decent quality, the text is authoritative, Caleb Crain's introduction is even better than Norman Grabo's introduction for Penguin, and, as if that were not enough, we finally get a couple of Brown's oustanding short stories--not the lame, too-often anthologized Somnambulism, but Thessalonica, an astonishing, apocalyptic tale of civil strife, together with several other pieces worthy of note. As an appendix, we get the viscerally appalling, absolutely hair-raising, newspaper story which Brown fictionalized as Wieland (one wonders whether King and Kubrick read it too for snowy axe chase in the Shining).
Book Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.
Book Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful writing but misleading collection.......2007-05-19
I ordered this book for a class. I needed several of Brown's novels and thought "Great, all of them in one compilation!" Wrong. While the title suggests that it is "The novels," it only contains one of them. I got "Arthur Mervyn," which I did need, but I could have found it a lot cheaper and with editor's notes (which this edition does not have).
Brown is an amazing writer and all of his novels are well worth reading, but know that you're only getting one novel when you order this book.
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