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Overview
Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize Award and recognized as the best book of fiction in the 21st century by the New York Times, Edward P. Jones's The Known World is a debut novel of stunning emotional depth and unequaled literary power and continues to show its importance to the American literary canon.
Henry Townsend, a farmer, boot maker, and former slave, through the surprising twists and unforeseen turns of life in antebellum Virginia, becomes proprietor of his own plantation--as well 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 under the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend household, 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, courageous, luminously written masterwork, The Known World seamlessly weaves the lives of the freed and the enslaved--and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery. The Known World not only marks the return of an extraordinarily gifted writer, it heralds the publication of a remarkable contribution to the canon of American classic literature.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780060557553
- ISBN-10: 0060557559
- Publisher: Amistad Press
- Publish Date: May 2004
- Dimensions: 8.01 x 5.33 x 0.98 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.67 pounds
- Page Count: 400
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The Known World
Readers of Edward P. Jones' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel are likely to find it nothing short of revelatory. The foundation of the bookthe institution of slavery as practiced between blacksis a little-mentioned bit of history that makes the South's tempestuous past seem even stormier than before. Set in 1850s Virginia, the novel focuses on Henry Townsend, a free black man, and his wife Caldonia. The two buy a slave to serve as overseer on their new farman odd transaction for Henry, himself a former slave, but one Virginia society seems to take in stride. The book features a broad cast of characters that includes Sheriff John Skiffington, who opposes the owning of slaves but doggedly fulfills his duty of apprehending those who escape, and William Robbins, Henry's vicious former master, who has fallen in love with a black woman. Conflating traditional notions of freedom and bondage, Jones offers a unique vision of history. A reading group guide is available online at www.harpercollins.com.
The Known World
Readers of Edward P. Jones' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel are likely to find it nothing short of revelatory. The foundation of the bookthe institution of slavery as practiced between blacksis a little-mentioned bit of history that makes the South's tempestuous past seem even stormier than before. Set in 1850s Virginia, the novel focuses on Henry Townsend, a free black man, and his wife Caldonia. The two buy a slave to serve as overseer on their new farman odd transaction for Henry, himself a former slave, but one Virginia society seems to take in stride. The book features a broad cast of characters that includes Sheriff John Skiffington, who opposes the owning of slaves but doggedly fulfills his duty of apprehending those who escape, and William Robbins, Henry's vicious former master, who has fallen in love with a black woman. Conflating traditional notions of freedom and bondage, Jones offers a unique vision of history. A reading group guide is available online at www.harpercollins.com.