Publisher's Synopsis
The narrative opens with Dr. Stevens and his wife having found Arthur Mervyn sitting on a bench near their house in Philadelphia, evidently suffering from the yellow fever. Mervyn is invited by the couple to their home so that he may be healed by Stevens and rest. Unfortunately, the couple's friend, Mr. Wortley, discovers Mervyn after paying the Stevens household a visit, and tells his friend that Mervyn is not to be trusted due to his evident connection to the detestable Welbeck, who is both a thief and a forger. Once he is well enough, the Stevens request Mervyn to share his story- how did he come to contract yellow fever, why was he all alone on that bench, how is he connected to Welbeck, etc. In response, Mervyn tells the story of his unkind expulsion from his family home after his mother died and his father married an immoral, low class woman. From this country home, without much money, Mervyn traveled to Philadelphia, hoping to find a job and shelter. Unfortunately, these needs are answered by Welbeck, and Mervyn, unknowingly, accepts the offer to become Welbeck's writer. The novel contains a number of misfortunes and misinterpretations that cause Mervyn's fate and reputation to be repeatedly challenged: Twice does Mervyn believe that Welbeck has died only to be proven wrong by his eventual reappearance; Mervyn's time in the city coincides with the yellow fever epidemic and he eventually contracts the dreaded disease; Mervyn must take part in the disposal of a man named Watson's corpse after Welbeck kills him; Mervyn works to rescue Clemenza Lodi, one of Welbeck's victims, from poverty, immorality, and a tarnished reputation after he finally discovers her in a house of prostitution; Mervyn must rescue his own reputation after his step-mother spread a lot of damaging gossip about him throughout his paternal neighborhood; Mervyn tries but fails to rescue the kind Hadwins from sorrow (they all die except for Eliza), however he manages to rescue Eliza, and eventually place her in the Philadelphia home of Mrs. Fielding who educates her and accepts her as a sister; etc. After successfully emerging from all of these obstacles, Mervyn becomes a physician's apprentice to Dr. Stevens, marries his beloved (and wealthy) Mrs. Fielding, and the two plan to move to Europe.
