In addition to the definitive UVA text of Brown's seminal novel,
this edition includes an introduction setting the work in its
historical, literary, and intellectual contexts. Related texts
include selections from William Godwin's Enquiry Concerning
Political Justice (1793), Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia; or, The Laws
of Organic Life (1794), Benjamin Franklin's A Narrative of the Late
Massacres (1764), and Thomas Barton's The Conduct of the Paxton-Men
(1764), as well excerpts from Brown's own essays on somnambulism
and the uses of history in fiction.