Review of 'Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker'

I promised you guys more reviews of classics, so here we are. This one is a bit of an obscure one, and comes from an American author at the turn of the 19th Century. This was another text that I was *meant* to read during my degree but got slipped by the wayside. I'm not going to lie, I've probably got a good hundred of these on my kindle and in my book shelf. My goal for the next year or two is basically to read everything I was meant to but never actually got around to. I love reading revered books, and ones that will teach me things about different times and places, so I was so disappointed that I simply ran out of time to read so many amazing books on my course. 

I've been making firm progress in this goal recently, especially in the past month, and hopefully you guys will have noticed with the increase in classics posts, and posts in general! I only managed to get one post in in June (shameful I know), but I've whacked out five or six in July I believe, and I really hope this continues in August. 

Edgar Huntly, Or Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker is set in Philidelphia in the late 1700s. The main character, Edgar, sets out to discover who murdered his best friend Waldegrave. As he does so, he comes across a man called Clithero, digging by an elm tree in the middle of the night. Assuming him to be the murderer, Edgar confronts him once they are both awake. Clithero however has an unlikely story to tell, which does involve murder, but not that of Waldegrave.

Here the reader is transported to Ireland, a place that Clithero holds dear in his heart, and taken through a gothic journey to discover why Clithero has moved so far away from everything he loves. Satisfied with Clithero's tale, Edgar takes himself back to his home, only to arise battered and bruised in the depths of a cave. 

From here, we are taken on a fantasy-filled voyage involving jaguars, aggressive Indians, captive girls and a lot of bloodshed. This book examines battles between native Americans and settling Europeans in an incredibly graphic and direct manner. If you're interested in that time period, then I'd definitely recommend giving this a read!

Have you read it? What did you think?