Wieland

Wieland, Gothic novel by Charles Brockden Brown, published in 1798. The story concerns Theodore Wieland, whose father has died by spontaneous combustion, apparently for violating a vow to God. The younger Wieland, also a religious enthusiast seeking direct communication with divinity, misguidedly assumes that a ventriloquist’s utterances are supernatural in origin; driven insane, he acts upon the prompting of this “inner voice” and murders his wife and children. He is eventually driven to kill himself.