Dead Certainties: Unwarranted SpeculationsLike his The Embarrassment of Riches and the bestselling Citizens, Simon Schama's latest book is both history and literature of immense stylishness and ambition. But Dead Certainties goes beyond these more conventional histories to address the deeper enigmas that confront a student of the past. In order to do so, Schama reconstructs -- and at times reinvents -- two ambiguous deaths: the first, that of General James Wolfe at the battle of Quebec in 1759; the second, in 1849, that of George Parkman, an eccentric Boston brahmin whose murder by an impecunious Harvard professor in 1849 was a grisly reproach to the moral sanctity of his society. Out of these stories -- with all of their bizarre coincidences and contradictions -- Schama creates a dazzling and supremely vital work of historical imagination. "From the Trade Paperback edition. |
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Page 73
... Professor Webster hang , I can think of nothing else than this that you want only to gratify your thirst for Blood . If Professor Webster hang you will meet with a terrible death , one that you little dream of . You have had one man ...
... Professor Webster hang , I can think of nothing else than this that you want only to gratify your thirst for Blood . If Professor Webster hang you will meet with a terrible death , one that you little dream of . You have had one man ...
Page 123
... Doctor just sail- ing into the Professor's back room while Webster was reading his chemistry book with a candle . The intrusion itself got him steamed up , but it got worse when the Doctor fairly shouted at him , “ Are you ready for me ...
... Doctor just sail- ing into the Professor's back room while Webster was reading his chemistry book with a candle . The intrusion itself got him steamed up , but it got worse when the Doctor fairly shouted at him , “ Are you ready for me ...
Page 235
... Professor Webster for- feited to the laws of this country because it has been proved here , beyond all reasonable doubt , that he has committed one of the most horrible offences which can be enumerated even on the law's dark catalogue ...
... Professor Webster for- feited to the laws of this country because it has been proved here , beyond all reasonable doubt , that he has committed one of the most horrible offences which can be enumerated even on the law's dark catalogue ...
Contents
At the Face of the Cliff | 11 |
In Command | 21 |
Deep in the Forest | 40 |
Copyright | |
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