Restless Is the River

In this expansive novel, August Derleth traces the early development of the town of Sac Prairie (a fictionalized version of his hometown, Sauk City, Wisconsin) from 1840 to 1850. It was in 1839 that Count Augustin Brogmar was forced to flee Hungary to escape political persecution, taking with him his wife, Eleanor, and his two small children. Settling in Sac Prairie, he immediately focused on a succession of business interests—wheat farming, the operation of a ferry boat and a general store, and much else. But in the midst of his frenetic work, he began to notice that his wife was not only displeased with the raw, new country that was now their home—so different from the aristocratic environment of her birth—but that she was gradually descending into madness, talking to long-dead relatives and drawing away from himself and others. How Augustin reconciled his wife’s ailments with his own diverse interests is the focus of a novel that portrays the rapid establishment of village life in the Midwest—an account that exhibits Augustin’s restless energy, so like the Wisconsin River on which he built his home.