The Known World

by Edward P. Jones

Hardcover, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

Jo

Publication

Amistad (2003), Edition: 1st, 388 pages

Description

Fiction. African American Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML: From Edward P. Jones comes one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory�??winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can't uphold the estate's order, and chaos ensues. Edward P. Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all its moral complexities. "A masterpiece that deserves a place in the American literary canon."�??Time… (more)

Original publication date

2003

Media reviews

New York Times
Among the many triumphs of ''The Known World,'' not the least is Jones's transformation of a little-known footnote in history into a story that goes right to the heart of slavery. There are few certified villains in this novel, white or black, because slavery poisons moral judgments at the root
1 more
One great achievement of Edward Jones's Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Known World is the circumscription of its moral vision, which locates the struggle between good and evil not in the vicissitudes of the diabolical slaveholding system of the American south, but inside the consciousness of each
Show More
person, black or white, slave or free, who attempts to flourish within that soul-deadening system
Show Less

Barcode

1906
Page: 0.082 seconds