Advertisement & Chapter I Summary

Wieland is a novel of horror and the supernatural set near Philadelphia in the mid 1700s. Related in the form of a letter by Clara Wieland, it details a series of chilling events including her brother's descent into madness, culminating in his murder of his family. One of the earliest American novels, it also satirizes the popular Gothic horror stories of Europe at the time by playing with a format familiar to readers of the era and offering scientific rationales for the supernatural appearances of the story.

The author begins with a brief note to the reader. It addresses that the rare occurrences of the novel can be explained and are loosely inspired by recent true events. It sets the time frame of the narrative as being between the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the...