The Known World

by Edward P. Jones

Hardcover, 400 pages

English language

Published September 2003 by Amistad.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-055754-6
OCLC Number:: 51519698

(9 reviews)

Henry 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 …

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 the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery.

13 editions

Alex Cabe reviewed The Known World by Edward P. Jones

A Novel Made of Interwoven Stories That Make Manchester County Feel Real

4 stars

After reading Jones' short stories, I was interested to see his take on a novel. It turned out to be very similar. There were many, many characters here, and at times I felt like I was reading a collection of interwoven short stories. Even the chapters had similar titles to his short stories.

This novel did a fantastic job of making Manchester County feel like a real place. It was very interesting to read a slavery novel by a Black author that centered Black slaveholders, and their mixed feelings about participating in the institution. No one character really hooked me, but they all felt human.

The occasional dips into magic realism and symbolism would make this a great choice to be read together in a book club.

Aaron reviewed The Known World by Edward P. Jones

The Known World

5 stars

This book came out when I was in graduate school and I didn't read it at the time (too busy!) but I recall it getting a lot of acclaim. I am usually a little nervous dipping into fiction about antebellum America, but in this case I shouldn't have worried at all. The book struck me as very evocative of the period, and I enjoyed Jones's tendency to carry the stories of minor characters far beyond what purpose they served within the book, going on for a paragraph or so about their children, grandchildren, and even how they might end up in a historian's book. A good reminder that all of these characters (not just the main ones) lived full lives. In fiction, authors get to fill in a lot of gaps where historians would (justifiably) fear to tread due to gaps in the sources. But Jones's imagination doesn't seem to …

Sharyl reviewed The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Review of 'The Known World' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The Known World is a wonderful historical novel, one you will think about for awhile afterwards. There are as many personal perspectives in this book as there are people--it's a detailed, rich story. Jones was able to go so deep into each character that it felt as though the characters themselves were telling the story. This novel is authentic and moving.

The novel's subject is slavery in antebellum Manchester County, VA, with an emphasis on a group of slave-owners who were, themselves, black. It sheds light on the relationships and hyprocracies that people accepted in order to maintain a fragile and awkward social and economic system.