SOURCE: Charles Brockden Brown: A Study of Early American Fiction, Free Press Association, 1904, pp. 47-66.

In the following essay, Vilas reviews the influence of other writers on Brown, as well as Brown 's influence on Shelley and on American writers. Vilas notes that Brown did not establish a school of fiction in America and stresses the influence of William Godwin on Brown.

Influence of European Writers on Brown

That Brown was affected in his works of fiction by his predecessors and his contemporaries in the art has been indicated, indeed, it goes without saying. Everyone is the product of his time and his environment. Now and then an intellect stands forth that seemingly has been able so to gather impressions from the "storied urns" of the past and from the realities of the present as to "send messages into Philistia" to appear like the warning voice of a...