The Shadow of Moloch Mountain

Catalog Note *The Shadow of Moloch Mountain* by Jane G. Austin (published 1870) opens with domestic tensions at the Brewster farm near Milvorhaven, a New England seaport. Farmer Peleg Brewster, after discovering betrayals involving his second wife Semantha and his brother Joe, announces he will sell his property and estate, forbidding them all from its proceeds. He dismisses his twelve-year-old daughter Ruth coldly and expels his wife. The narrative establishes a psychological drama rooted in family conflict and broken trust across generations. Chapter II shifts to lyrical description of Millbrook, a stream near Moloch Mountain that powers a mill wheel, using personification to characterize the water's carefree nature. The serial appears to combine domestic realism with regionalist New England settings, building toward undefined consequences hinted at in Peleg's emotional restraint before his departure.