Literature > Arthur Mervyn or Memoirs of the Year 1793

In Part One, the novel’s plot and subplots focus on Arthur’s struggle to make his way in the yellow fever and crime infested city of Philadelphia in 1793. Dr. Stevens relates how he found the afflicted Arthur and nursed him back to health. Arthur’s own tale is a story about his sad boyhood in rural Pennsylvania, his coming to Philadelphia for a better life, and how upon his arrival he falls prey to a swindler, losing his clothing and money, before meeting the apparently rich Thomas Welbeck, a confidence man. While Welbeck hires Arthur to copy a stolen manuscript, Arthur eventually learns that Clemenza Lodi, Welbeck’s “daughter,” is really a woman Welbeck had taken advantage of financially and then kept, against her will, as a mistress. Arthur later observes Welbeck’s murder of Amos Watson, and participates in burying the body and starts to realize that Welbeck is a criminal. But Welbeck disappears in the Delaware River, prompting Arthur to flee the city for fear of his own demise. He returns to the countryside and finds work with the Hadwins, a Quaker family, where he falls in love with Eliza Hadwin and discovers $20,000 of embezzled monies. Arthur decides to go back to Philadelphia in order to return the money and to locate Wallace, Susan Hadwin’s fiancé. Arthur, however, contracts yellow fever, is almost buried alive, and again encounters Welbeck, who is in search of the banknotes. Arthur, deathly ill yet desiring to be virtuous, confronts Welbeck, burns the notes, and travels to Medlicote’s house where he collapses and the novel’s narrator, Doctor Stevens, finds him.

Part Two of Arthur Mervyn begins with Arthur stepping forth “upon the stage,” eager to demonstrate “benevolence” and concern about Wallace and the Hadwins. Stevens relates various facts as they pertain to his experiences and the history of the Mervyns. Hadwin, we learn, died from yellow fever when returning to Philadelphia to help Wallace. Susan also dies shortly after Mervyn visits the farm, and Mervyn feels compelled to help Eliza, whose abusive uncle takes her inheritance. Returning to Philadelphia, Mervyn searches for and locates Welbeck's mistress Clemenza Lodi at Mrs. Villars’s brothel, where she was left by Welbeck, and witnesses Welbeck's suffering and death in debtor's prison. After Welbeck's demise, Mervyn finds new homes for Clemenza with his friend Mrs. Wentworth and for Eliza with newfound friend Mrs. Achsa Fielding. Mervyn meets Achsa at Villars’s brothel and learns that she is the wealthy Jewish widow of an Englishman who died fighting for the Girondin faction in the French revolution. The novel concludes as Mervyn falls in love with Achsa and looks forward to marrying her, reaffirming his friendship and medical apprenticeship with Dr. Stevens and looking forward to the future.