Edgar Huntly

In Short

Set in the rugged wilderness and early settlement communities of late-eighteenth-century Pennsylvania, Edgar Huntly follows a young man driven to unravel the unprovoked murder of his closest friend, Waldegrave. His investigation leads him into the nocturnal woods of Solesbury, where he encounters a sleepwalking servant named Clithero Edny. As Edgar pursues Clithero into the desolate caverns and thickets of Norwalk, he becomes entangled in a dangerous web of madness, Irish secrets, sleepwalking episodes, and violent clashes with Native Americans. Charles Brockden Brown’s 1799 novel remains a landmark of American literature for transplanting traditional European Gothic terror into the raw, psychologically harrowing American wilderness.

The Story

The narrative opens as Edgar Huntly writes a detailed account of recent, terrifying events to his fiancée, Mary Waldegrave. Edgar remains tormented by the unpunished murder of Mary’s brother, Waldegrave, who was killed under an elm tree near Solesbury. Seeking answers, Edgar watches the tree late at night and discovers Clithero Edny, an Irish servant employed by a local family, weeping and digging frantically in the earth while asleep. Intrigued and suspicious, Edgar tracks Clithero across perilous cliffs and thickets into the wild region of Norwalk.

When confronted, Clithero reveals a horrific backstory in a lengthy confession. In Ireland, he served the noble Mrs. Lorimer. Through a tragic sequence of misunderstandings involving her villainous brother, Wiatte, Clithero accidentally shot Wiatte in self-defense. Overcome by grief and convinced that Mrs. Lorimer’s life was mystically bound to her brother’s, Clithero attempted to kill Mrs. Lorimer to spare her from the lingering agony of the news, only to be stopped at the last moment. Fleeing his homeland in despair, Clithero settled in Pennsylvania, believing himself cursed. Though Edgar attempts to convince Clithero of his innocence, the tormented man vanishes into the wilderness to starve or perish.

Edgar’s attempts to aid Clithero unleash his own latent somnambulism. Waking up in pitch darkness, Edgar finds himself trapped at the bottom of a deep subterranean pit in the Norwalk wilderness, disoriented, starving, and bruised, with no memory of how he arrived there. Armed only with a dropped tomahawk, he climbs out of the pit, kills a lurking panther, and feeds on its raw flesh to survive. Emerging from the cave system into the daylight, he finds himself in the middle of a raid by a band of Delaware Indians who have taken a young white girl captive.

Desperate to protect the girl and survive, Edgar engages in a series of violent confrontations, killing several captors with stolen firearms and a bayonet. Wounded and exhausted, he wanders through the wilderness, barely escaping further attacks before reaching safety. There he reunites with his former mentor, Sarsefield, who had recently married Mrs. Lorimer after her arrival in America.

Despite Sarsefield's explicit warnings, Edgar feels compelled to inform Clithero that Mrs. Lorimer is alive and living in New York. This well-intentioned information triggers a catastrophic relapse in Clithero's fragile mind. Believing he must complete his former purpose, Clithero departs to find her. The shock of learning that her attempted murderer is loose causes Mrs. Lorimer to suffer a miscarriage, losing her unborn child. Clithero is captured to be sent to an asylum, but during transport across the water, he leaps overboard and drowns, bringing the harrowing saga to a bleak conclusion.

How It Unfolds

The vigil under the elm Edgar Huntly watches the site of his friend Waldegrave's unsolved murder late at night. He discovers Clithero Edny digging in his sleep, weeping, and wandering aimlessly through the treacherous terrain of Solesbury.

The servant's confession Clithero admits to killing a villainous nobleman named Wiatte in self-defense in Ireland. Believing this act would kill Wiatte's sister, Mrs. Lorimer, through a fatal bond, Clithero attempted to murder her out of misguided mercy before fleeing to America.

Trapped in the pit Edgar succumbs to his own sleepwalking and awakens in complete darkness at the bottom of a subterranean cave. Starving and disoriented, he climbs out using a tomahawk, slays a stealthy panther, and eats its raw flesh to regain his strength.

Battle in the wilderness Upon escaping the cave, Edgar discovers a band of Native Americans holding a young woman captive in a log cabin. He rescues the captive, kills several captors in intense firefights and hand-to-hand combat, and navigates a hazardous wilderness to return to civilization.

The tragic aftermath Reunited with Sarsefield, Edgar learns that Mrs. Lorimer survived and married Sarsefield. Edgar foolishly reveals this to Clithero, triggering a final bout of madness that results in Mrs. Lorimer's miscarriage and Clithero's ultimate leap to his death from a ship.

The People

• Edgar Huntly: The narrator, a young rural Pennsylvanian driven by intense curiosity and moral righteousness. He seeks to solve Waldegrave's murder and rehabilitate Clithero, but his impulsive interference and unacknowledged sleepwalking bring disaster to those around him.
• Clithero Edny: An Irish immigrant and former servant to Mrs. Lorimer. He is burdened by severe guilt over his past actions in Ireland, seeking absolute solitude in the American wilderness to escape his internal torment and madness.
• Mrs. Lorimer (Lady Lorimer): An opulent Irish patroness who raised Clithero and possessed a deep, superstitious belief that her fate was tied to her twin brother Wiatte. She survives his death, emigrates to America, and marries Sarsefield.
• Sarsefield: Edgar's former intellectual mentor and high-minded tutor. Having previously lived in Europe and loved Mrs. Lorimer, he returns to America, rescues Edgar from the wilderness, and attempts in vain to restrain Edgar's reckless impulses.
• Waldegrave: Edgar’s deceased friend, whose mysterious nighttime murder near a local elm tree initiates the central plot and drives Edgar into the wilderness.

In Its Own Voice

"The incidents of Indian hostility, and the perils of the Western wilderness, are far more suitable; and for a native of America to overlook these would admit of no apology."

Charles Brockden Brown establishes his literary goal in the preface, replacing European Gothic tropes with the immediate dangers of the American frontier.

"Instead of rushing on him, and breaking at once the spell by which his senses were bound, I concluded, contrary to my first design, to wait his departure, and allow myself to be conducted whithersoever he pleased."

Edgar describes his initial decision to follow the sleepwalking Clithero through the nocturnal landscape, setting his obsession into motion.

"The darkness was no less intense than in the pit below, and yet two objects were distinctly seen. They resembled a fixed and obscure flame... These were the eyes of a panther."

Emerging from the subterranean pit, Edgar faces an immediate threat in the darkness, illustrating the visceral perils of his wilderness ordeal.

What It's Really About

Edgar Huntly explores the instability of human reason and the fragile boundaries between sanity and madness. Charles Brockden Brown uses the phenomenon of sleepwalking to argue that individuals are often blind to their own destructive motives and darker impulses. The novel contrasts the rational ideals of Enlightenment education—represented by Edgar and Sarsefield—with the raw, uncontrollable realities of human guilt and wild nature. By replacing European castles with the American wilderness and subterranean caverns, the text suggests that the frontier is not merely a geographic location, but a psychological state where moral restraint dissolves. Ultimately, the book questions whether good intentions can ever prevent harm when driven by obsessive curiosity.

Why Read It Today

Edgar Huntly offers a fascinating look at the foundations of early American fiction and the birth of the American Gothic tradition. Readers interested in psychological thrillers, early frontier literature, and narratives of survival will find its claustrophobic cave scenes and nocturnal wilderness pursuits genuinely suspenseful.

The novel presents certain challenges for modern readers. Written in an elaborate late-eighteenth-century epistolary style, the prose relies on formal, melodramatic syntax and lengthy internal monologues that slow the narrative pace. Additionally, its depiction of Native Americans reflects the rigid colonial hostilities and racial attitudes of the 1790s, portraying them primarily as terrifying wilderness antagonists.

Despite these period barriers, the book remains remarkably gripping in its depiction of trauma, disorienting environments, and mental instability. Brockden Brown excels at crafting relentless physical tension—most notably in Edgar's awakening in the dark pit and his subsequent struggle for survival. It remains a memorable, disturbing study of how easily a well-meaning mind can lose its way in the dark.