An excerpt of a review from "The Dublin University Magazine" [1838], Volume 13: ONE of the finest passages in modern fiction is the meeting between Watson and Welbeck in Brockden Brown's "Arthur Mervyn." The stern concentrated rage of the avenger - the more awful from its calmness - and the wordless resignation and despair of the wretched seducer are portrayed with a terrible faithfulness to nature. The introductory words of Watson - "It is well. The hour my vengeance has long thirsted for is arrived. Welbeck I that my ...
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An excerpt of a review from "The Dublin University Magazine" [1838], Volume 13: ONE of the finest passages in modern fiction is the meeting between Watson and Welbeck in Brockden Brown's "Arthur Mervyn." The stern concentrated rage of the avenger - the more awful from its calmness - and the wordless resignation and despair of the wretched seducer are portrayed with a terrible faithfulness to nature. The introductory words of Watson - "It is well. The hour my vengeance has long thirsted for is arrived. Welbeck I that my first words could strike thee dead! They will so, if thou hast any claim to the name of man," - prepare us for the harrowing disclosures that follow - the death of Watson's sister "from anguish und a broken heart," and the suicide of their lunatic father in consequence. And when Watson, having narrated the latter circumstance, draws a pistol from his breast, and, approaching Welbeck, places the muzzle against his forehead, saying with forced calmness - "This is the instrument with which the deed was performed," who, even of those that cannot "feel" the scene, but must acknowledge the graphic nature of the conception? The duel, also, across the table, with its unlooked for result in the death of Watson, and the whole of the subsequent narrative of the interment of the corpse in the cellar - how peculiarly, but how powerfully they are given! Our interest in the entire affair is heightened by the singular character of Welbeck, who, by the way, is not at all like the Falkland of "Caleb Williams," though Dunlop, Brown's biographer, fancies he perceives a marked resemblance between them. Let us hope that "Arthur Mervyn" will find a place among the Standard Novels. It deserves the honor fully as much as "Edgar Huntly."
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