The Known World [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Edward P. Jones (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 14, 2003

A 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner.

Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of 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 beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend estate, 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, luminously written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians -- and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Set in Manchester County, Virginia, 20 years before the Civil War began, Edward P. Jones's debut novel, The Known World, is a masterpiece of overlapping plot lines, time shifts, and heartbreaking details of life under slavery. Caldonia Townsend is an educated black slaveowner, the widow of a well-loved young farmer named Henry, whose parents had bought their own freedom, and then freed their son, only to watch him buy himself a slave as soon as he had saved enough money. Although a fair and gentle master by the standards of the day, Henry Townsend had learned from former master about the proper distance to keep from one's property. After his death, his slaves wonder if Caldonia will free them. When she fails to do so, but instead breaches the code that keeps them separate from her, a little piece of Manchester County begins to unravel. Impossible to rush through, The Known World is a complex, beautifully written novel with a large cast of characters, rewarding the patient reader with unexpected connections, some reaching into the present day. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly

In a crabbed, powerful follow-up to his National Book Award-nominated short story collection (Lost in the City), Jones explores an oft-neglected chapter of American history, the world of blacks who owned blacks in the antebellum South. His fictional examination of this unusual phenomenon starts with the dying 31-year-old Henry Townsend, a former slave-now master of 33 slaves of his own and more than 50 acres of land in Manchester County, Va.-worried about the fate of his holdings upon his early death. As a slave in his youth, Henry makes himself indispensable to his master, William Robbins. Even after Henry's parents purchase the family's freedom, Henry retains his allegiance to Robbins, who patronizes him when he sets up shop as a shoemaker and helps him buy his first slaves and his plantation. Jones's thorough knowledge of the legal and social intricacies of slaveholding allows him to paint a complex, often startling picture of life in the region. His richest characterizations-of Robbins and Henry-are particularly revealing. Though he is a cruel master to his slaves, Robbins is desperately in love with a black woman and feels as much fondness for Henry as for his own children; Henry, meanwhile, reads Milton, but beats his slaves as readily as Robbins does. Henry's wife, Caldonia, is not as disciplined as her husband, and when he dies, his worst fears are realized: the plantation falls into chaos. Jones's prose can be rather static and his phrasings ponderous, but his narrative achieves crushing momentum through sheer accumulation of detail, unusual historical insight and generous character writing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: Amistad; 1st edition (August 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060557540
• ISBN-13: 978-0060557546
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (360 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward P. Jones won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was nominated for the National Book Award for his debut collection of stories, Lost in the City.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

313 of 323 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, thoughtful, and utterly compelling September 12, 2003

By Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader

Format:Hardcover

Edward P. Jones tackles a difficult subject with depth and courage. Unlike other reviews listed here, I did not find his prose difficult, but enjoyed its richness and color, and found "The Known World" filled with flawed and genuine people of all races who grapple with slavery-America's "peculiar institution"-in a way that will surprise and compel readers.

Mourners come to Manchester County, Virginia to bury Henry Townsend and comfort his widow Caldonia. Henry was only 31 years old, a successful landowner and the owner of 33 slaves. He was also black, and a former slave himself. His human property learned from the start that working for a black master was no different from working for a white-or an Indian, for that matter. But they hold out the tiniest shred of hope that Caldonia, who was born free, will free them.

Henry's father Augustus bought his own freedom from his owner, Bill Robbins. He then worked to buy his wife, and then his son. But Henry always felt more affinity with Robbins than he did with his own family, shocking his parents when he buys his first slave. There are a number of black and Cherokee slave owners in the area who look on slaves with perhaps even more dispassionate eyes than do their white neighbors. "The legacy," Henry's mother-in-law calls his slaves when Caldonia briefly considers manumitting them. "Don't throw away the legacy."

I have never found a book that looks at slavery like "The Known World" does. Throw your preconceived notions out the window and be prepared to be completely pulled into a world where, no matter the characters' race, nothing is black and white.

262 of 275 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly a Book for Every Thoughtful Person August 15, 2004

By O. Brown HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

*****

The Known World was unique among fiction books I have read in the last twenty years or so. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I would not call it an easy read, because it was some work to keep track of all of the different characters, but nevertheless, so very well worth it. Despite the work, it was entertaining. Like other reviewers, it kept me up at night, and kept me reading.

The book caused me to wonder how I would behave had I the same cultural background as the various characters in the book---the white slave owners, black slave owners, the black slaves. I had always thought before that I "of course" would be against slavery, would fight for rights for all races, and absolutely never do anything so repulsive as to own slaves. I wondered how anyone ever could! The Known World opened my eyes to how this could happen, and how easily one of those slaveowners---black or white---could have been me. Or how easily I could have been a slave. It also provided insight into the psychological world of the slave. All of this was done by showing, not telling, so the reading was more of a powerful emotional experience rather than an intellectual experience.

What made this so different for me is that I picked this book soley upon the Amazon reviews and rankings. I had no inherent interest in American history or race relations or the Civil War era, but this book GOT me interested. I think that the only person who would not enjoy this book would be the person who is not open or interested in challenging themselves, not interested in thinking, or afraid to find out about or explore the dark side of the human experience....

Because of the complexity of the book, as far as the feelings of the characters, the layers of meaning, and the strong impact, I know that I will read this book again and again, and am therefore glad that I spent the money to get it in hardback. It is well worth the money, and is a beautiful "rough cut" book. I have thought about its message again and again since reading it; I would call it haunting, thought-provoking, disturbing, and honest.

***** Read more ›

62 of 66 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking, eye opening................... October 14, 2003

By jeanne-scott

Format:Hardcover

Edward P. Jone's novel, The Known World, is a story about the social and moral boundaries that were woven into the fabric of those living in Virginia in the time of slavery. The author creates a clear and insightful look into the lives of individuals whose lives were bound with the reality of slavery. The focus of the story are black slave owners and black slaves. While many are familiar with this period of time and the issues involved, Edward P. Jones sheds new light on the issue of black slave owners.
The perspectives of the slave owners, the slaves and as well as the freed blacks (those who accepted the fact of slavery and those who opposed it) are all explored. The thoughts of white slave owners and the whites who did not own slaves are also an integral part of this book.
The story seemed to lack a fiery passion to it that I thought it would have. I have realised that this technique is a critical part of the style the author used to tell the story. The lack of passion relays the feeling that these people had accepted their KNOWN WORLD, that slavery was a part of the fabric of their lives and was an acknowledged normal aspect of life. No matter who you were, you aspired to become a slaveowner because it signified that you were successful and deserving of respect.
It begs the question, what in our own KNOWN WORLD do we accept that in years to come will be viewed very differently by future generations. The story is a thought provoking, eye opening work by Edward P. Jones.

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Stained Glass Assemblage September 28, 2003

By Patrick Shepherd VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Blacks owning blacks is not something that one normally considers when one thinks of the conditions in the South prior to the Civil War. But, though rare, it did exist, and this novel explores one such case, and by doing so helps provide a more complete picture of the Known World, another window into that era and by reflection a vision of the current world.

Perhaps most noticeable at the beginning of the book is the style it is told in. This is not a linear narrative with a well-defined protagonist and a clear-cut set of problems. Instead, Jones jumps from character to character, backward and forward in time, sometimes with his focus on an individual, sometimes reading more like an academic treatise documenting historical occurrences - often doing so even within a single paragraph. Because of this style and the sheer number of characters that are introduced or casually mentioned (over a hundred of them), it is very difficult to get quickly engrossed in this work. Not until almost a hundred fifty pages in does a coherent picture emerge and the characters coalesce from names into being people.

But what does finally emerge is a picture of just how 'free' blacks could really be in that time. Though legally able to buy and sell others, the rights of this miniscule class of people did not extend to the full protection of the law - although as clearly shown here, it didn't extend to many others as well: the poor, the half-breeds, even women as a class. Entry into 'society' is clearly denied, even though some of them were well respected for their skills and general level-headedness. And they always had to carry their papers proving their freedom - in a world where only a few were literate, this is quite an irony as well as being degrading.... Perhaps most disturbing was the incident of Augustus Townsend, who purchased his own freedom and then that of his wife and son, respected as one of the best furniture makers in the county, who is sold back into slavery not for any malfeasance on his part, but merely due to the malice of a 'slave patroller' - and the only action taken against the patroller is a 'talking to'.

Conditions of that time are shown almost as a sidelight to the story: the prevalence of diseases now unheard of, the very short life expectancy, working hours from before dawn to after dark, the casual attitude towards worker injuries - highlighted by the 'insurance' policy sold to the wife of Henry Townsend after his death.

The climax of this novel does not come as any surprise, as Jones has left multiple clues and forshadowings throughout the earlier portions of the work, but it is extremely depressing, pointing out in no uncertain terms just how inhumane all too many people are, and how little an individual can do to change his own circumstances.

Though clearly well-researched and with a powerful story at its heart, I found the style to be quite a detriment to the story's overall impact. Though the mosaic formed by this style does eventually become a large picture of that time and place, it necessarily means there is no tight focus, and difficulty in presenting any depth of character. This lessened my emotional involvement in the main characters, and their fates never quite got beyond 'an historical occurrence' to become 'a real event' - a pity, as with a more direct style I think this could have been a great book.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat) Read more ›