SOURCE: "Methods of Composition," in The Sources and Influence of the Novels of Charles Brockden Brown, Vantage Press, 1950, pp. 189-206.

In the following essay, Wiley appraises the plots, characters, and style of Brown's novels, contending that his plots are "original, exceptional, and forceful," although they lack coherence. Wiley also notes that Brown's style may seem inflated, but that it reflects the "prevalent pedantry of the times."

The plots of Brown's novels are original, exceptional and forceful, though defective in unity of design. Each main narrative consists of a series of episodes slightly connected with each other, but all connected to the purpose and developing it. They are like clothes hanging on a line, grouped, however, as a good housewife would hang them. A contemporary of Brown, Royall Tyler, said of him:

He never mastered the art of fiction well enough to produce a book that deserved anything more...