45 pages 1 hour read

Charles Brockden Brown

Edgar Huntly: Or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1799

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Essay Topics

1.

Both narrators—Edgar and Clithero—are sleepwalkers. Compare their sleepwalking. How do the actions performed while sleepwalking relate to the actions performed while awake?

2.

Letters are a key aspect of Edgar Huntly. How does the epistolary structure of the novel—Edgar writing to Mary and the three short letters between Edgar and Sarsefield at the end—mirror the letters within the text, such as Waldegrave’s correspondence? How does the letter form determine its content?

3.

There are many passages about the landscape of rural Pennsylvania throughout the novel. How is nature portrayed? How does it impact the lives of people?