The Known World
E-Book exclusive extras: "Inside The Known World: An Interview with Edward P. Jones"; Reading Group GuideHenry 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 th
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Henry Townsend was born enslaved in 1840s Manchester County, Virginia, freed by his parents' careful saving, and trained by his former master to become a free Black farmer who in turn buys thirty-three enslaved people. After his early death, his widow Caldonia tries to keep the plantation in order.
Yes. The Known World won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Edward P. Jones also won the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was his debut novel after a celebrated story collection, Lost in the City.
The Known World is fictional but built around the documented historical reality of Black slaveholders in the antebellum American South. Edward P. Jones spent more than 10 years researching the period.
The Known World was written by Edward P. Jones, published in 2003 by Amistad.
The Known World is 400 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Known World takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Known World is a standalone novel by Edward P. Jones, not part of a series.
The Known World is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
