Graham's Magazine, Vol. XX, No. 4, April 1842

In Short

This issue of Graham’s Magazine serves as an eclectic snapshot of mid-nineteenth-century American literary tastes, bringing together original short fiction, dramatic narrative poetry, historical tragedy, and acute critical reviews. The collection moves seamlessly between domestic melodramas of broken vows and sickbeds, harrowing nautical adventures on foggy seas, gothic tales of somnambulism and preserved remains, and satiric takes on rural political disputes. Threading through these disparate forms is a rigorous intellectual debate over the nature of American art, led by period critics defining how poetry, prose, and public morality ought to intersect.

The Story

The volume opens in a atmosphere of intense domestic strain with "The Wife," a drama of sickness and long-suffering devotion. Emily Walpole sits through the dead hour of night beside the bed of her feverish husband, Edward. Though Edward has wronged her deeply and betrayed the idealism of their youth, Emily remains by his side through the ninth day of his delirium, awaiting the physical crisis that will determine his survival or death. Her quiet endurance sets a recurring thematic baseline for the volume: the moral weight of human sympathy in the face of suffering.

From domestic sickchambers, the collection shifts outward into wider, darker worlds. In a gothic story set in the Apennines, a severely wounded traveler and his servant take refuge in an apparently abandoned chateau, establishing themselves in a high, tattered turret lined with mysterious paintings. The narrator, fueled by opium, obsessively studies a small guide on the wall art, descending into a dreamy trance. Elsewhere, a dramatic subterranean discovery unfolds in a salt mine, where laborers dislodge a massive rock to reveal the uncorrupted body of a twenty-year-old miner, perfectly preserved in the crystalized vault. The villagers gather on the green around this life-like youth, including the ancient Dame Ursula, who emerges after twenty years of isolation to confront a resurrected spectre of her long-buried past.

Narrative tension expands further onto the open ocean and historical battlegrounds. A young naval officer aboard The Arrow navigates heavy fog off an isolated island, listening to the disembodied, sweet voices of women echoing from an unseen craft to windward. His seasoned boatswain suspects supernatural forces, but the educated officer correctly identifies a pirate vessel operating in the gloom, leading to a deadly capture, loss of life, and the solemn burial of an officer. Meanwhile, historical drama plays out in Tudor England, where the Duke of Somerset faces political ruin at his own council table. Arrested for treason before his daughter, Lady Jane, and surrounded by scheming rivals like the Earl of Warwick, the fallen duke demonstrates a quiet, unyielding dignity in defeat.

Interspersed among these prose narratives are comic intermissions and poetry. The small town of Tattletown is thrown into absolute uproar when rival local editors Snobb and Fobb take their pettifogging libel dispute to the extreme, marching off toward Bungville with shotguns and triggering a panicked horseback intervention by a committee of village selectmen. Narrative poems like "Agathè" trace romantic madness and grim death-wakes, while critical essays examine James Russell Lowell, John Keats, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, closing with a passionate plea for pure aesthetic beauty over mere moralizing prose.

How It Unfolds

The vigil of the devoted A loving wife sits by the bed of her delirious husband, enduring the silent midnight hours as his life-threatening fever reaches its ultimate crisis.

The retreat into the turret A wounded traveler breaks into an abandoned Apennine chateau and retreats to a high, tapestry-hung room, using opium and candlelight to lose himself in mysterious canvas paintings.

The excavation in the mine Laborers heaving away a massive boulder in a neglected salt mine uncover the perfectly preserved, life-like corpse of a young worker entombed decades earlier.

The phantom song in the mist Sailors on a naval vessel hear strange female voices echoing through a dense sea fog, discovering a hidden pirate craft in the dark.

The fall of the duke Political intrigue reaches a climax as the Duke of Somerset is stripped of his power and arrested for high treason in the presence of his daughter.

The editorial duel Two warring small-town newspapermen arm themselves with guns and head for a neighboring village, throwing their community into an uproar of absurd panic.

The critic's judgment An influential literary reviewer critiques contemporary authors, arguing that true poetry must strictly dedicate itself to the creation of novel moods of beauty.

The People

• Emily Walpole: A beautiful, highly intelligent woman who patiently nurses her husband through a life-threatening fever despite having been deeply wronged by his past errors and betrayals.
• Edward Walpole: Emily's ill husband, whose youth was marked by charm and promise, but whose later moral failures and prostrating disease bring him to the brink of death.
• Pedro: A loyal and resourceful valet who forces entry into an empty mountain chateau to secure shelter for his desperately injured master.
• The Wounded Traveler: An introspective narrator who consumes opium in a remote turret room, becoming dangerously entranced by night-lit portraits and an obscure guidebook.
• Dame Ursula: An ancient, reclusive villager who emerges from her twenty-year seclusion when miners disinter a perfectly preserved youth from the depths of a salt mine.
• The Duke of Somerset: A noble statesman who, betrayed by political rivals like the Earl of Warwick, retains a quiet, commanding dignity when arrested for treason before his child.
• Snobb and Fobb: Feuding small-town newspaper editors whose escalating local accusations and petty vanity culminate in an armed, comical duel in a neighboring village.

In Its Own Voice

"The pale moonlight streaming through the curtained window, and struggling with the subdued light of a candle placed in a corner, disclosed the figure of a sick man extended on a bed, wrapped in an unquiet slumber."

Context: The opening scene of "The Wife" establishes the dark, suspenseful atmosphere as Emily sits watch over her bedridden husband.

"Extended upon this singular couch, lay the form of a young man, apparently not more than twenty years of age; his limbs were exquisitely moulded, and he looked as if but yesterday he had been hushed in the deep sleep of death."

Context: Mine workers in "The Miner's Fate" lift an ancient rock to discover a subterranean vault holding an uncorrupted, youthful body.

"Beauty is always his aim. We have thus shown our ground of objection to the general themes of Professor Longfellow. In common with all who claim the sacred title of poet, he should limit his endeavors to the creation of novel moods of beauty..."

Context: Edgar Allan Poe (writing in the literary review section) outlines his critical theory on the strict aesthetic boundaries separating true poetry from instructive prose.

What It's Really About

Beneath its varied genres, this issue explores the conflict between ideal art and mortal fragility. The stories continuously probe how human beings respond when confronted by sudden disaster, decay, or moral failing. The non-fiction reviews argue that the highest purpose of literature is not plain moral instruction, but the creation of pure, elevated beauty that touches universal human sympathy. Throughout the magazine, characters face moments of extreme isolation—whether in a high turret room, a dark mine shaft, a foggy ocean, or a hostile royal court—and must rely on inner fortitude or external compassion to endure.

Why Read It Today

This volume offers a vivid, unfiltered look at the birth of American popular culture and literary theory. It provides a rare chance to read foundational nineteenth-century genres—gothic horror, high-seas melodrama, small-town satire, and romantic verse—exactly as everyday readers consumed them in 1842.

Modern readers will find the collection surprisingly dynamic, particularly in the literary criticism sections, which feature sharp, uncompromising takes on legendary authors like Longfellow, Keats, and Hawthorne. While the prose style occasionally indulges in the dense floridness, dramatic sentimentality, and formal vocabulary typical of the antebellum period, the sheer variety keeps the reading fast-paced. It is an ideal pick for enthusiasts of American history, classic literature, and gothic storytelling who want to experience the nineteenth-century magazine in its original, unvarnished state.