Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend estate, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave "speculators" sell free black people into slavery, and rumors of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years.
An ambitious, luminously written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians -- and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Edward P. Jones, the New York Times bestselling author, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World; he also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004. His first collection of stories, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short listed for the National Book Award. His second collection, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award. He has been an instructor of fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. He lives in Washington, D.C.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 4.99
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # mon0000031463
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. 1st Edition. Stored new never used sanitized then wrapped. Book. Seller Inventory # ABE-1669834254614
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. First Edition. 388 pages with 27 additional pages of interviews, insights and more. Seller Inventory # 001813
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780060557546
Book Description Hardback or Cased Book. Condition: New. The Known World 1.27. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780060557546
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0060557540
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9780060557546
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 0060557540
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABLIING23Feb2215580001701