Memoir Of Charles Brockden Brown

SAR #1: “William H. Prescott Criticism on Charles Brockden Brown”

In “Memoir of Charles Brockden Brown, the American Novelist,” William H. Prescott proves that Brown was “an American bard” (2) with his influence in Early-American literature and laments that not all people appreciate.

The context of Prescott’s criticism is a contribution to expressing why Brown’s work has been a successful influence to Early-American literature. The audience Prescott addresses is academically educated people who are willing to engage in hard literature that challenges them. Prescott’s purpose is to congratulate Brown’s success as an “American author” and persuades that Brown was influential to literature due to his new concepts. The organizational form is cause and effect, stating the category of Brown’s works and then going into persuading the influence Brown had on literature because of the concepts explored in his works. Prescott’s tone starts as assured and energetic, but becomes ambivalent in the last paragraph as he questions if “we may

For a well-educated critic, Prescott proves his point be using writing tools, which I agree on, but I am skeptical about the bigger discussion that his excerpt contributes to. If I were to fully agree with Prescott’s purpose of Brown’s influence on Early-American literature, I would have to read more Charles Brockden Brown’s works as well as other Early-American authors to compare them and see if Brown had an impact on literature. As well as study more of the literature beyond that point to see references to Brown’s work or concepts. To me, this might have been the deal breaker because I have only read the first four chapters of Edgar Huntly and I don't believe I have read any other Gothicism author, so I don’t have an open mind about this