The Algerine Captive

Book excerpt: He wrote the first American comedy to be performed onstage, and here, in this extraordinary but sadly little-remembered 1797 novel, he anticipates the great literature of the coming American century. Here, in two volumes in one book, Royall Tyler tells the astonishing-and thoroughly fictional-tale of Boston gentleman and scholar Updike Underhill, whose life encompasses such extremes as fumblings with Greek poetry that almost lead him to a deadly duel and a stint as a surgeon on a slave ship. One of the first works of fiction to feel uniquely American, this combination of satire and sincerity begins, in Volume 1, as a comedy of manners and genteel adventure the likes of which Mark Twain would later make his own, and transforms, in Volume 2, into a sober tale of abolition and a striking consideration of what it meant, in those early days of the nation, to be an American. Fans of American literature should consider this a must-read. American playwright ROYALL TYLER (1757-1826), born William Clark Tyler, wrote many other plays, some of which have been lost, as well as novels, essays, and humorous verse.