wieland and memoirs of carwin the biloquist

He had not intended her harm, but events had spiraled out of his control.

He denies any complicity in the murders but explains that he regrets his actions towards Clara. She agrees to go with him to Europe, but first returns to Mettingen to recover her diary.Īt her house, she meets Carwin. Clara falls ill and is cared for by her uncle. Clara believes that Carwin must have led her brother into madness. Clara is horrified to learn that Wieland has confessed to the crime, claiming he acted under direction from God. Wieland and Catharine's children have also been murdered. When Clara arrives for the meeting, she finds the murdered body of her sister-in-law, Catharine. Though he still cares for her, Pleyel severs all ties with Clara.Ĭlara receives a note from Carwin asking for a meeting so that he can explain himself. He claims to have overheard Clara talking with Carwin during an illicit meeting, though Clara knows that the meeting had not taken place. He is angry at her having dishonored herself and calls Carwin a murderer and a thief. The following day, Pleyel appears and accuses Clara of having entered a sexual relationship with Carwin. He claims he had planned to rape her, but she is protected. That evening she again hears voices in her closet and decides to confront them. Clara's love for Pleyel grows and she is distraught when he fails to appear as agreed one day. He offers rationales for the supernatural voices, but Wieland rejects them. Clara immediately identifies him as a villain.

She runs to her brother for help, collapsing on his doorstep, and the mysterious voice warns Wieland that she needs help.Īn old acquaintance of Pleyel's appears. Clara overhears men in her closet, apparently plotting to murder her.

At first they take them to be benign, warning of dangers. Clara, Henry Pleyel and Wieland start hearing mysterious voices on the estate. Clara is in love with Catharine's brother Henry Pleyel. Her brother, Theodore, has married her friend, Catharine Pleyel. It is one of the earliest American novels.Ĭlara lives with her brother and his family on the grounds of Mettingen, the family estate. Narrated by Clara Wieland, it relates her brother's descent into madness, ending with his murdering his family. Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown is a novel of supernatural horror set near Philadelphia in the mid 1700s.

Wieland and memoirs of carwin the biloquist