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The Forest

A Fable of America in the 1830s
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( 84 ratings, 25 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Forest is a vivid historical imagining of life in early Jacksonian America, set amid its glimmering lakes and forests. Through a series of brief, interconnected stories, the book explores the lives of painters, poets, enslaved people, farmers, and artisans, blending fact and fiction. Featuring both renowned historical figures like Thomas Cole, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Nat Turner, as well as lesser-known characters, it paints a dense and nuanced picture of American society as a forest of diverse experiences and aspirations.
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Format: Hardback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

The Forest will appeal to readers interested in historical fiction rich with cultural detail, fans of American history, and those who appreciate literary explorations of society’s complexities through evocative storytelling.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A vivid historical imagining of life in the early United States.

Set amid the glimmering lakes and disappearing forests of the early United States, The Forest imagines how a wide variety of Americans experienced their lives. Part truth, part fiction, and featuring both real and invented characters, the book follows painters, poets, enslaved people, farmers, and artisans living and working in a world still made largely of wood.

Some of the historical charactersβ€”such as Thomas Cole, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fanny Kemble, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nat Turnerβ€”are well-known, while others are not. But all are creators of private and grand designs.

The Forest unfolds in brief stories. Each episode reveals an intricate lost world. Characters cross paths or go their own ways, each striving for something different but together forming a pattern of life. For Alexander Nemerov, the forest is a description of American society, the dense and discontinuous woods of nation, the foliating thoughts of different people, each with their separate shade and sun. Through vivid descriptions of the people, sights, smells, and sounds of Jacksonian America, illustrated with paintings, prints, and photographs, The Forest brings American history to life on a human scale.

Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

'One of the richest books ever to come my way.' Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Shipping News

'This is a wonderful book. . . . An extraordinary achievement.' - Edmund de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of The Hare with Amber Eyes

Series: Bollingen Series

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised as "one of the most pungent books" with an evocative sensory richness by Wall Street Journal critic Jackson Arn, The Forest has been described by Literary Hub as a "nonfiction novel" imagining early American life as an ecology. The New York Times highlights its vibrant portrayal of cultural life through the lens of the forests, capturing the thoughts and struggles of historical figures and ordinary people alike. Acclaimed authors such as Annie Proulx and Edmund de Waal have lauded it as an extraordinary achievement.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780691244280

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 07 March 2023

Country: United States

Imprint: Princeton University Press

Illustration: 59 color + 7 b/w illus.

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 336

About the Author

Alexander Nemerov is the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford University. His many books include Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York and Soulmaker: The Times of Lewis Hine (Princeton).

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