The Peaceable Kingdom [Import] [Hardcover]

Jan De Hartog (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st, First Edition edition (1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241021863
• ISBN-13: 978-0241021866
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,328,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars well-written historical fiction that doesn't pull punches, September 21, 1998

By 

Rachel ([e-mail]) (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peaceable Kingdom (Paperback)

In the course of his flowing narrative, De Hartog manages to deal with all sorts of issues surrounding the intersection of religion, daily life and history including:

--is a prophet or founder of a religion anything other than a troublemaker who attracts women and wreaks havoc in society?

--how does "doing the right thing" differ from "being a do-gooder"?

--how does one listen for the voice of God?

--isn't religion absurd in the face of evil?

--what's the deal with religious people who kept slaves?

Not that there are pat answers to these and other questions De Hartog, a Quaker himself, explores in the novel -- sometimes there are no answers at all, just characters who go on with their lives and their work anyhow.

I think the book will be liked by the religiously inclined as well as atheists like myself. Just don't expect another absurdist, postmodern, depressing read, because you won't find it here...thankfully.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring Historical Novel, December 29, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peaceable Kingdom (Paperback)

I received this book unsolicited from a book club during the seventies. The way in which the author presents the struggles of these early Quakers with themselves and the world in which they lived left me with a stronger sense of individual values and the importance of our individual commitment to our own. I have highly recommended this book as a must read since then. There are two sequels which are interesting but lesser works.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-composed historical adventure and education., July 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Peaceable Kingdom (Paperback)

Anyone at all interested or intrigued by the Quaker witness to Christianity will find deHartog's adventure to be both exciting and contemplative. DeHartog wonderfully displays the God-inspired beauty, as well as the struggles and shortcomings, of those who inspired (and still inspire) these peace-loving people -- the Quakers. If you like historical novels, I strongly recommend this one.