Francis Parkman: France and England in North America Vol. 1 (LOA #11): Pioneers of France in the New World / The Jesuits in North America / La Salle ... (Library of America Francis Parkman Edition) - Hardcover

Parkman, Francis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0940450100 ISBN 13: 9780940450103

Publisher: The Library of America, 1983

Synopsis

This is the first of two volumes presenting all seven parts of Francis Parkman's monumental narrative history of the struggle for control of the American continent. Thirty years in the writing, Parkman's "history of the Ameican forest" is an accomplishment hardly less awesome than the adventures he describes. This volume begins with the tragic setlement of French Huguentos in Florida, then shifts north as explorers like Samuel de Champlain map the wilderness and wage savage forest warfare against the Iroquois; resolute Jesuits attempt to convert the Indians and suffer captivity, torture, and martyrdom in the wilderness; conflict rages in French Canada between religious extremists and fure traders. Dominating all is the fiercely indomitable La Salle, whose obsession with colonizing the Mississippi Valley leads to vast treks across the western prairie and assassination in a lonely Texas swamp.

About this title

Review:

"These works are distinguished by Parkman's vigorous and resourceful prose, alive with ingenious figurative language and resonant description. His method is basically novelistic: he renders specific dramatic scenes, invents appropriate dialogue, and describes his characters' presumed thoughts and feelings. The result is a panorama that never dwarfs personalities--a demonstration of historical process that is, at the same time, deeply attentive to the human concerns that shaped it." --The Christian Science Monitor

About the Author:

Francis Parkman (1823-1893) was one of America's first and greatest historians, author of such narrative masterpieces as The Oregon Trail, France and England in North America and The Conspiracy of Pontiac.

David Levin (1924-1998), volume editor, was professor of English at the University of Virginia and the author of History as Romantic Art: Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, and Parkman, In Defense of Historical Literature, and Cotton Mather: The Young Life of the Lord's Remembrancer: 1663-1703.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Library of America
• Publication date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0940450100
• ISBN 13: 9780940450103
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1504