THE TREES
- ISBN-10
- 0804150990
- ISBN-13
- 9780804150996
- Series
- THE TREES
- Category
- Fiction
- Pages
- 304
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013-10-02
- Publisher
- Knopf
- Author
- Conrad Richter
Description
“They moved along in the bobbing, springy gait of a family that followed the woods as some families follow the sea.” In that first sentence Conrad Richter sets the mood of this magnificent epic of the American wilderness. Toward the close of the eighteenth century the land west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio river was an unbroken sea of trees. Beneath them the forest trails were dark, silent, and lonely, brightened only by a few lost beams of sunlight. Here the Lucketts, a wild, woodsfaring family, lived their roaming life, pushing ever westward as the frontier advanced and as new settlements threatened their isolation. Richter has written, not a historical novel, of which there are so many, but a novel of authentic early American life, of which there are so few. It is the primitive story of Worth Luckett, the hunter, and of Jary, his woman; of Genny, Wyitt, Achsa, and Sulie, their woods-wild children; of the bound boy and the Solitary and Jake Tench; but principally of the oldest girl, Sayward Luckett, whos people as far back as she knew had always been hunters and gunsmiths to hunters, but who, through the quiet, growing, and yet tragic oppression of the trees, turns her back at last on her life as a hunter’s child and becomes a tiller of the soil. This novel of great lyrical beauty and high excitement tells the story of the transition of American pioneers from the ways of the wilderness to the ways of civilization. Here is the true American epic. Here is the raw adventure, swift and cruel in its episodes; but here too is the poetry of loneliness. Here is a portrait of frontier life as it really must have seemed to the pioneers. Here in short is a masterpiece by the man who gave us The Sea of Grass.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Trees, the Trees
By Heather Christle'Heather Christle's poems may well be one of the places readers turn when they want to know what it was like to be young and paying attention in the early 21st century .
-
Boys in the Trees: A Memoir
By Carly SimonSimon brilliantly captures moments of creative inspiration, the sparks of songs, and the stories behind writing "Anticipation" and "We Have No Secrets" among many others.
-
The People in the Trees: A Novel
By Hanya YanagiharaBut his discovery has come at a terrible cost, not only for the islanders, but for Perina himself. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s bestselling new novel, To Paradise, available now.
-
The Tree Book: For Kids and Their Grown Ups
Describes the different types of trees of North America and how to identify them by their leaves, buds, and bark, and explains why trees are important to the environment.
-
Beyond the Trees: Stories of Wisconsin Forests
By Candice Gaukel AndrewsResource added for the Landscape Horticulture Technician program 100014.
-
From the Tops of the Trees
By Kao Kalia YangKao Kalia Yang's sensitive prose and Rachel Wada's evocative illustrations bring to life this tender true story of the love between a father and a daughter.
-
Into the Trees
By Robert WilliamsInto the Trees is the story of four dispossessed people, drawn to the forest in search of something they lack and finding their lives intertwining in ways they could never have imagined.
-
In the Trees, Honey Bees
By Lori MortensenHere is the ideal introduction for preschoolers and early elementary children to insects that are not only amazing but also critically important to humans.
-
The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge
By Manuel LimaIn this new companion volume, The Book of Trees, data viz expert Manuel Lima examines the more than eight hundred year history of the tree diagram, from its roots in the illuminated manuscripts of medieval monasteries to its current ...
-
To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest
By Diana Beresford-KroegerDiana Beresford-Kroeger's startling insights into the hidden life of trees have sparked a quiet revolution. In this captivating account, she shows us how forests can not only heal us, but can also save the planet.