The Unquiet Field

[very attractive copy, minimal shelfwear to book, faint age-toning to edges of text block, one-time owner's name & date written neatly on front endpaper; the jacket shows just a bit of wear at the spine ends and at a couple of corners, and is lightly tanned along the spine]. Very scarce novel with a notable historical background: it's the story of three generations of an English family, spanning the years from 1720 to 1841, seen through the prism of the trans-Atlantic slave trade -- which enriches the elders of the Liverpool-based family but repulses their children, cousins Bartley and Lavinia Sherrard. Lavinia makes her way to London, finds sympathy for her views among the city's literary and artistic crowd. (Numerous historical figures, including Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and others make appearances.) She "becomes mistress of a nobleman and has, by him, a daughter, who becomes both lovely and accompished." (The women in the novel don't just take a back seat to the men; one contemporary review noted that "the emanicipation of women moves apace with the fight for abolition.") Meanwhile, Bartley has gone his own way and has a son, who takes the side of the American colonies in their quest for independent from England, and falls in love with an American girl -- who is at first a believer in slavery but has her eyes opened when she decides to investigate the true nature of the trade for herself. Yet another generation later, as the Abolitionist movement is well on the rise, Bartley's grandson meets up with and marries Lavinia's granddaughter. Throughout the story "personal characteristics as well as ideals are seen developing through the changing years, and from the human side of the story one gets a whole picture of the period." The Arthur Hawkins Jr.-designed dust jacket is quite striking, as was typical of his work.

Product Info

Publisher: The Macmillan Company

Year: 1940

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

ReadInk

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Country: United States