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"Written in prose so clear that we absorb its images as if by mind meld, "The Last Painting" is gorgeous storytelling: wry, playful, and utterly alive, with an almost tactile awareness of the emotional contours of the human heart. Vividly detailed, acutely sensitive to stratifications of gender and class, it's fiction that keeps you up at night ― first because you're barreling through the book, then because you've slowed your pace to a crawl, savoring the suspense." ―Boston Globe

• A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
• A New York Times Bestseller

A RARE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING LINKS THREE LIVES, ON THREE CONTINENTS, OVER THREE CENTURIES IN THE LAST PAINTING OF SARA DE VOS, AN EXHILARATING NEW NOVEL FROM DOMINIC SMITH.
Amsterdam, 1631: Sara de Vos becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter to the city's Guild of St. Luke. Though women do not paint landscapes (they are generally restricted to indoor subjects), a wintry outdoor scene haunts Sara: She cannot shake the image of a young girl from a nearby village, standing alone beside a silver birch at dusk, staring out at a group of skaters on the frozen river below. Defying the expectations of her time, she decides to paint it.
New York City, 1957: The only known surviving work of Sara de Vos, At the Edge of a Wood, hangs in the bedroom of a wealthy Manhattan lawyer, Marty de Groot, a descendant of the original owner. It is a beautiful but comfortless landscape. The lawyer's marriage is prominent but comfortless, too. When a struggling art history grad student, Ellie Shipley, agrees to forge the painting for a dubious art dealer, she finds herself entangled with its owner in ways no one could predict.
Sydney, 2000: Now a celebrated art historian and curator, Ellie Shipley is mounting an exhibition in her field of specialization: female painters of the Dutch Golden Age. When it becomes apparent that both the original At the Edge of a Wood and her forgery are en route to her museum, the life she has carefully constructed threatens to unravel entirely and irrevocably.

• Sales Rank: #3928 in Books
• Published on: 2016-04-05
• Released on: 2016-04-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.27" h x 1.04" w x 6.29" l, .0 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of April 2016: Across three continents and four hundred years, Dominic Smith has spun a stunning tale of forgeries and deaths, deception and love to reveal the lasting legacy of a fateful brush stroke. Akin to the page-turning greats like Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Goldfinch, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is held together by the gravitas of a single painting to tell the story of two women—their mistakes and love affairs, their devotion to art and their struggles to thrive in a male dominated profession. When Ellie Shipley, a young art student, agrees to copy the seventeenth century painting, “At the Edge of a Wood,” her future becomes irrevocably entangled with Sara de Vos, the artist whose work she forged. Weaving together the past and present lives of Sara and Ellie and their two paintings, Smith brilliantly transports readers from 1950s New York - the mahogany walls of Upper West side apartments and the grit of Brooklyn, to the moody Dutch countryside of the 1600s to Sydney Australia’s sun-soaked harbor in 2000. A vivid, enthralling novel that is as timeless and luminous as the painting itself. --Al Woodworth

From Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Smith’s latest novel is a rich and detailed story that connects a 17th-century Dutch painting to its 20th-century American owner and the lonely but fervent art student who makes the life-changing decision to forge it. This is a beautiful, patient, and timeless book, one that builds upon centuries and shows how the smallest choices—like the chosen mix for yellow paint—can be the definitive markings of an entire life."

Review
"As this story of art, beauty, deception, and the harshest kinds of loss ranged over continents and centuries, I was completely transfixed by the sense of unfolding revelation. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is, quite simply, one of the best novels I have ever read, and as close to perfect as any book I'm likely to encounter in my reading life. One of those rare books I'll return to again and again in the coming years." --Ben Fountain, bestselling author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, a National Book Finalist

"The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is a story told in layers of light. From afar, this novel is so beautiful, the prose so clear and vivid, that it seems effortless; on close examination, one sees the rich thematic palette Dominic Smith has used. This is a novel of love and longing, of authenticity and ethical shadows, and, most importantly, of art as alchemy, the way that it can turn grief into profound beauty." --Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling author of Fates and Furies

"Gliding gracefully from grungy 1950s Brooklyn to the lucent interiors of Golden Age Holland and the sun-splashed streets of contemporary Sydney, the novel links the lives of two troubled, enigmatic, and hugely talented young women, one of them an artist, the other, her forger.  A page-turning book with much to say about the pain and exhilaration of art and life." Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and The Year of Wonders

"In The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith moves effortlessly between his 17th century artist and those who fall under the spell of her work more than 300 years later.  Smith is a writer of huge gifts and his descriptions of the painting and of those who fall in love with it, (and with each other) are rendered with wondrous intelligence and keen wit.  The result is a novel of surprising beauty and piercing suspense.  I couldn't stop turning the pages even while the last thing I wanted was to reach the end." Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy

"Highly evocative of time and place, this stunning novel explores a triumvirate of fate, choice, and consequence and is worthy of comparison to Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. Just as a painter may utilize thousands of fine brushstrokes, Smith slowly creates a masterly, multi-layered story that will dazzle readers of fine historical fiction." Library Journal

“An elegant page-turner that carries its erudition effortlessly on an energetic plot . . . His narratives may be complex, but that quality only enhances their suspense . . . Apart from the story’s firm historical grounding, the narrative has a supple omniscience that glides, Möbius-like, among the centuries without a snag . . . Smith’s 1637 is as convincing a realization as his 1957 or 2000, Amsterdam in its Golden Age no less vivid than millennial Manhattan . . . The Last Painting of Sara de Vos may begin as a mystery about a crime, but by the end the reader sees far beneath that surface: All along it was a mystery of the heart.” ―Kathryn Harrison, The New York Times Book Review

"Riveting . . . His descriptions are beautifully precise . . . The genius of Smith’s book is not just the caper plot but also the interweaving of three alternating timelines and locations to tell a wider, suspenseful story of one painting’s rippling impact on three people over multiple centuries and locations . . . Smith’s book absorbs you from the start." --Washington Post

"Lustrous . . . Fans of epoch-hopping fictions such as Cunningham's and David Mitchell's will enjoy tracing understated commonalities between the various plot lines and period-specific settings, which Smith nimbly depicts . . . Both melancholy and defiant, Smith's novel leaves us with the sense that the truths we make are no less valuable for being inexact." --Chicago Tribune

“Written in prose so clear that we absorb its images as if by mind meld, “The Last Painting” is gorgeous storytelling: wry, playful, and utterly alive, with an almost tactile awareness of the emotional contours of the human heart. Vividly detailed, acutely sensitive to stratifications of gender and class, it’s fiction that keeps you up at night ― first because you’re barreling through the book, then because you’ve slowed your pace to a crawl, savoring the suspense.” ―Boston Globe

“Rapturous . . . Smith’s writing is incandescent from the first sentence . . . With a virtuoso sense of place, [Smith] pulls you into very different worlds . . . In this extraordinary narrative, lives, like paintings, can be great works of art, dependent on the minutest of decisions and happenstance. So, too, can novels, and in this sublime work about longing, creativity, love and loss, Smith explores what is authentic and what is hidden, on both the canvas and in the human heart.” ―San Francisco Chronicle

"This beautiful meditation on love, loss and art is as luminous as a Vermeer." ―People

"Equal parts suspense tale and exploration of beauty and loss, this vivid novel charts the journey of one 17th-century Dutch painting as it passes through time, nations, and the lives of all who touch it." ―O, The Oprah Magazine

"The Last Painting of Sara de Vos does what the best books can do: sweep the reader into unfamiliar worlds filled with intriguing characters . . . [a] true pleasure to read." ―Bookpage

“Audacious . . . Absolutely transporting” ―Maureen Corrigan, NPR

"Art fans and historical fiction fans, this one's for you . . . Get ready to be blown away." ―Bustle

"In the company of recent art world novels such as Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and Peter Heller’s The Painter, along comes Dominic Smith’s The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, a sublime tale of one woman’s lost art, another woman’s tragic mistake, and a privileged man’s link between the two . . . Smith excels at offering insight into his reserved characters’ psyches through subtle details and masterfully juggles time and place, as well as the various machinations, with dexterity and a lyrical touch for description. There’s a lovely, genteel beauty here. As with Vermeer’s still lifes, the novel has a serene quality that belies its tension and intrigue." ―Dallas Morning News

"Lovely, quietly resonant . . . Smith [has a] singular gift for conjuring distant histories. In his hands, the damp cobblestones and canals of 1600s Holland and the shabby gentility of Eisenhower-era New York feel as real and tactile and tinged with magic as de Vos’ indelible brushstrokes." ―Entertainment Weekly

"[I]n his new novel, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Australian-American writer Dominic Smith removes the barriers between the artist, the work and the viewer in a moving exploration of the way art impacts us . . . Laced with subtle tension and emotion, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is exquisitely human, highlighting characters who are endearing even at their worst. Smith’s novel illustrates why art remains a powerful force, both for those who create it and those who view it." ―Paste Magazine

"A beautiful, patient, and timeless book, one that builds upon centuries and shows how the smallest choices―like the chosen mix for yellow paint―can be the definitive markings of an entire life." ―Kirkus (starred review)

“Highly evocative of time and place, this stunning novel explores a triumvirate of fate, choice, and consequence and is worthy of comparison to Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Donna Tartt'sThe Goldfinch . . . Just as a painter may utilize thousands of fine brushstrokes, Smith slowly creates a masterly, multilayered story that will dazzle readers of fine historical fiction.” ―Library Journal (starred review)

"In this wonderfully engaging novel, centered on the paintings of fictional seventeenth-century Dutch artist Sara de Vos, Smith immerses the reader in three vibrant time periods . . . Rich in historical detail, the novel explores the immense challenges faced by women in the arts (past and present), provides a glimpse into the seedy underbelly of the art world across the centuries, and illustrates the transformative power and influence of great art. An outstanding achievement, filled with flawed and fascinating characters. ―Booklist (starred review)

"A mesmerizing and magically faux historical novel . . . The Last Painting of Sara de Vosis a splendid thing: a riveting mystery set in the rarified world of art collection about a stolen masterpiece and a gorgeous, haunting novel rooted in history, an incandescent achievement of literary imagination." ―Jeanette Zwart, Shelf Awareness

"As in Girl with a Pearl Earring, the technical process and ineffable aspects of creating a masterpiece enrich this novel, but Smith had to invent his masterpieces because no works survive by the real-life Sarah van Baalbergen, who was the first woman admitted to the Guild of St. Luke. Smith’s paintings, like his settings, come alive through detail: the Gowanus Expressway, ruins of an old Dutch village, two women from different times and places both able to capture on canvas simultaneous beauty and sadness." ―Publishers Weekly

“Gliding gracefully from grungy 1950s Brooklyn to the lucent interiors of Golden Age Holland and the sun-splashed streets of contemporary Sydney, the novel links the lives of two troubled, enigmatic, and hugely talented young women, one of them an artist, the other, her forger. A page-turning book with much to say about the pain and exhilaration of art and life.” ―Geraldine Brooks, author of The Secret Chord

“The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is a story told in layers of light. From afar, this novel is so beautiful, the prose so clear and vivid, that it seems effortless; on closer examination, one sees the rich thematic palette Dominic Smith has used. This is a novel of love and longing, of authenticity and ethical shadows, and, most compelling, of art as alchemy, the way that it can turn grief to profound beauty.”―Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies and the New York Times-bestselling Arcadia

“As this story of art, beauty, deception, and the harshest kinds of loss ranged over continents and centuries, I was completely transfixed by the sense of unfolding revelation. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is, quite simply, one of the best novels I have ever read, and as close to perfect as any book I’m likely to encounter in my reading life. One of those rare books I’ll return to again and again in the coming years.”―Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, a National Book Award finalist

“In The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith moves effortlessly between his seventeenth century artist and those who fall under the spell of her work more than three hundred years later. Smith is a writer of huge gifts and his descriptions of the painting and of those who fall in love with it (and with each other) are rendered with wondrous intelligence and keen wit. The result is a novel of surprising beauty and piercing suspense. I couldn't stop turning the pages even while the last thing I wanted was to reach the end.”―Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy

"The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is a deeply researched, beautifully written, intellectually absorbing novel that also has the qualities of a page-turner . . . I doubt you will be disappointed: The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is a tremendous story of art, deception, love, ambition and the place of women in the world, and in history. From the opening pages you know you are in the hands of a writer at the top of his game." ―The Australian

Most helpful customer reviews

73 of 78 people found the following review helpful.
"At the End of a Wood" in my mind from the perfectly detailed and beautiful description in the beginning of the book
By Angela
I see the painting titled , "At the End of a Wood" in my mind from the perfectly detailed and beautiful description in the beginning of the book . For a minute I forget what I just read about Sara de Vos's character being a blend of the biographical details of several Dutch women painters in the 17th century and I'm ready to go find the image online . I'm immediately disappointed when I realize the only image I'll have of this painting is what's in my mind's eye . That disappointment dissipates as the story unfolds because the painting plays such a prominent role I can always see it based on the description.

There's a mystery of sorts , a theft of a Sara de Vos painting from a New York apartment of a privileged couple in 1958, that according to the rules of The Guild of St. Luke in Holland should not have been painted by a woman . Women were only supposed to paint still lifes. A forgery by a young woman , Ellie , trying to make it in the art world and centuries later, the men are still dominating it. The story spans the globe - Amsterdam , New York and Sydney and cuts across time the 1600's , the 1950's and finally 2000 with three narratives moving around these times and places . I almost always enjoy the novels I've read blending the past and present and for some reason I almost always enjoy the story from the past more . That held true for me in this novel as well. Whenever I read the part from 1950's or 2000, I couldn't wait to get back to Sara's story. I just had more of an emotional connection to Sara and I really wanted to know what happened to her . Having said that the meshing of Ellie's story with Sara's in the end was perfect !

I don't know much about the art world but came away from this feeling as if I learned something about it as well as enjoying the skillful story telling of Dominic Smith, an author I have not read until now .

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley.

63 of 67 people found the following review helpful.
Wonderful book on art, honesty, living with personal and historical past.
By Susan Drees
This excellent novel took me somewhat by surprise. I was expecting to be interested in this tale of the art world, theft and possible forgery, Netherlands and the art of the 17th century, but instead I was captivated.

This is such a fascinating story, taking place in 3 distinct time eras: 17th century Netherlands, 1950s New York City and Sydney, Australia of 2000. What might potentially become dangerously confused in less sure hands, is here intriguing and pulls the reader on through the pages and years. The author is assured in taking us through these times and peoples' lives; learning their secrets, their inspirations, their pain and hope and love and loss. And it centers ultimately on painting and the painting of Sara de Vos, the first woman admitted to the Guild of St. Luke's in Holland. We see her difficult life, as well as the difficult early life of grad student Ellie Shipley, freelancing as an art restorer to make money while working on her dissertation in New York City, thousands of miles from her place of birth in Australia.

Along the way, Smith treats the reader to a minor course in the creation and restoration of classic art as well as some gorgeous descriptions of art theory through Shipley's later lectures on Dutch artists such as Vermeer. But there is the matter of the forgery! Why was it made? Who for? Where is it? And what repercussions will this copy made in the early 1950s have in present day Australia?

In an exquisite moment, one of the primary characters, Ellie, is giving a lecture on qualities of light in art and uses Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance to explain what she sees, what the artist has used and created. I think this book will affect the way I look at art in the future, how I think when I'm in a museum or a gallery. I also think I will read this book again and have added all of Smith's other books to my tbr.

Highly recommended

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful.
A love story for a painting and a time...
By Jill Meyer
Very few authors write a novel set in two or three places, characters, and times well. It's difficult to give each part it's own distinctive voice without shortchanging the other parts. And that's especially true when the author switches back and forth between time and place and character. However, author Dominick Smith has done a superb job of juggling in his new novel, "The Last Painting of Sara de Vos".

The novel, set in New York City in 1957, Amsterdam/Haarlem in 1636, and Sydney/New York in 2000. The varying "faces" and places and times all circle around a painting created by a female Dutch artist named Sara de Vos whose works have been lost to time and non-recognition. Since most art was created by men, the most important art was credited to men. In Smith's book, a modern art historian - Eleanor Shipley - was studying Dutch women's art and was writing a thesis on Judith Leyster, an acknowledged artist of the 1600's. Shipley was living in New York in the mid-1950's and studying at Columbia University. She was also dabbling in artistic restoration to older paintings. She somehow gets mixed up with a man who wanted her to exactly copy a painting by Sara de Vos. The painting she is copying belongs to a Dutch/American lawyer who lives on the Upper East side and whose family has owned the painting for 300 years.

The story line set in 1636 concerns the woman artist Sara de Vos, who has lost her only beloved child to illness. Her husband has deserted her and In her attempt to assuage her pain, she begins to paint a scene of a village, with a young girl viewing the village life from a hill. It is this painting, "At the Edge of a Wood", that belongs to Martin de Groot. He sets out to find the original picture that had been swapped for the fake painted by Ellie Shipley. The story then turns to Sydney in the year 2000, when de Groot and Shipley and the paintings all meet up again in a special exhibition.

If the plot sounds complicated, it certainly is. But Dominick Smith juggles his plot and characters with such efficiency that the book comes together. There was very little misstepping that I could find, though may be some question of the painting on the front of the book. Smith's book is a masterpiece of both painterly and human love for a young girl depicted on a canvas.

See all 455 customer reviews...

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• Sales Rank: #221896 in Books
• Published on: 2013-11-12
• Released on: 2013-11-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.22" h x 1.03" w x 6.41" l, 1.08 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review

“One of the pleasantest and truest books about wine I've ever read.” ―M. F. K. Fisher

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“Adventures on the Wine Route is the best book I've ever read about wine. Kermit Lynch is as brilliant a writer as he is a taster, and his quest for authentic wine is more relevant than ever.” ―Jay McInerney

“When one enters a bookstore nowadays and goes to the section reserved for books about wine, one is overwhelmed by how immensely it has grown. In this jungle where obsolescence is rampant, only a very few will become classics. Adventures on the Wine Route is surely one of them--a quarter of a century old and not one wrinkle! The author's prose, his lyrical descriptions, his enthusiasm--not to mention his unique experiences along ‘his' wine route--will delight, instruct, and cast an indelible spell on readers for years to come.” ―Aubert and Pamela de Villaine

“I am simply thrilled by it. I am bowled over by his blend of poetry and candour. What heaven-sent common sense.” ―Hugh Johnson

“Quirky, opinionated, maddening, hilarious . . . riveting, illuminating, totally original . . . Strongly recommended.” ―Clive Coates

About the Author
Kermit Lynch was born and raised in California. In 1972, he opened a retail wine shop and later began importing and distributing nationally. In 1988, he published Adventures on the Wine Route, which won the Veuve Clicquot Wine Book of the Year Award. His second book, Inspiring Thirst, was published in 2004. Lynch divides his time between Berkeley and Provence, where he lives with his wife, the photographer Gail Skoff.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
entertaining, personal look into wine
By James Mosewood
Kermit writes a heartfelt, often funny and entertaining, personal account of his travels within France as a wine importer in the 1980's. When looking for wines to import, he looks for artisanal wines that are made by winemakers that respect tradition and emphasize quality over quantity, while keeping prices reasonable for everyday drinking. Much of the book is his experiences with these winemakers, many humorous anecdotes, but also discusses serious decisions vintners are faced with as land changes hands, new generations take over, technology becomes available, and market trends change. Aside from the ascetic values of the wines, Kermit puts great focus on the personality of the winemakers he meets, which he believes greatly influence the resulting product.

What this book is NOT is a wine guide or a tourist map. Kermit briefly touches upon the differences between wines grown in different regions that he visits, but it is hardly exhaustive or consistent. For example, he does a good job distinguishing between the different appellations of Northern Rhone, but does little to detail the Bordeaux sub-regions. But remember that this is a personal account, so don't expect encyclopedic coverage.

The 25th Anniversary edition adds an extra chapter discussing the trends of the industry since the original 1988 publication, updates on some of the winemakers, and Kermit's personal opinion on natural wines (spoiler: "natural" does not mean good.)

Recommended for anyone who loves wine and wants to know a little more about what it takes to get it to your local store.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Needs a map
By Kathleen Dur
The addition of a map introducing each wine area of France would have added immensely: Loire, Bordeaux etc with a few of the villages/ towns mentioned that the author visited.
The purchaser needs to know this is still the 1988 edition 'OC the book with an epilogue of sorts. It is not am updated wine route of Loire etc. Not sure it is that helpful.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A Love Story on Wine
By studebhawk
Written by a wine professional, Kermit Lynch wrote an ode to the fine art of wine making for us all to enjoy. In the process, he wrote of a time and place in France that has changed dramatically 25 years later. His French contacts are the small family owned vineyards that produce high quality, small yield old growth wine using the old French traditional methods. In the update written for the 25th anniversary edition, he brings us up to date with some of the characters we loved from the original edition. He regrets the passing of his old friends and, with it, the old school methods and traditions of traditional French winemaking. He regrets the profusion of the mass produced wine that we get today using short cut methods to produce large volumes of wine devoid of that signature French “taste”.
In “Adventures on the Wine Route”, Kermit Lynch wrote an ode to a way of life in French wine, of a time and place that was special and in so doing he wrote a love story for us all.

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!! Download Ebook The Rule of the Clan: What an Ancient Form of Social Organization Reveals About the Future of Individual Freedom, by Mark S. Weiner

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A revealing look at the role kin-based societies have played throughout history and around the world

A lively, wide-ranging meditation on human development that offers surprising lessons for the future of modern individualism, The Rule of the Clan examines the constitutional principles and cultural institutions of kin-based societies, from medieval Iceland to modern Pakistan.
Mark S. Weiner, an expert in constitutional law and legal history, shows us that true individual freedom depends on the existence of a robust state dedicated to the public interest. In the absence of a healthy state, he explains, humans naturally tend to create legal structures centered not on individuals but rather on extended family groups. The modern liberal state makes individualism possible by keeping this powerful drive in check―and we ignore the continuing threat to liberal values and institutions at our peril. At the same time, for modern individualism to survive, liberals must also acknowledge the profound social and psychological benefits the rule of the clan provides and recognize the loss humanity sustains in its transition to modernity.
Masterfully argued and filled with rich historical detail, Weiner's investigation speaks both to modern liberal societies and to developing nations riven by "clannism," including Muslim societies in the wake of the Arab Spring.

• Sales Rank: #985004 in Books
• Published on: 2013-03-12
• Released on: 2013-03-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.30" h x .92" w x 6.30" l, 1.02 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Review

“It has been said that the past can be a reliable guide to the future. Mark Weiner's The Rule of the Clan is a fascinating case in point. He dissects modern society to reveal the ancient form of social order from which it emerged, then portrays convincingly how those earlier forms can reassert themselves under certain conditions. His book should be of great interest to scholars of history, government, and human behavior alike.” ―Rick Docksai, World Future Review

“Weiner doesn't simplify his argument by dismissing or condescending to the clan system; he engages with the very real benefits provided by one of the most durable political associations in human history . . . This erudite, quick-paced book demonstrates what the mix of modernity and clans can create.” ―Cara Parks, The New York Times Book Review

“The Rule of the Clan confronts an uncomfortable but important reality. In the process, it challenges the careless liberal assumption that national identity is an anachronism and a strong state a threat.” ―Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion

“A must read for anyone interested in understanding the complex relation between tribal identity, law, and custom; in seeking common ground between the Western and Islamic legal and political traditions; and in connecting the past to present in the service of legal reform.” ―Abdullah Saeed, Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia

“The Rule of the Clan gives a fascinating glimpse into a world that few Westerners today understand: a world of honor, shame, collective responsibility, and violent feuds. This book tells us what we need to know if we really want to modernize the clan societies of the Middle East and central Asia―and if we want to save our own liberal democracies from descending into clannish chaos.” ―an Morris, Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics and Professor of History at Stanford University, and author of Why the West Rules―For Now

“The Rule of the Clan is a delight to read--an engaging tour of societies in which kinship groups have been the primary form of social organization, from Anglo-Saxon England to medieval Iceland to southern Sudan, modern India, the Philippines, and much more. It is also an insightful meditation on what proponents of individual freedom must grasp if they are to realize their aspirations in societies made up not of rational abstractions, but of people like us.” ―Rogers M. Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania

“Mark Weiner has raised the crucial yet neglected subject of tribal identity and loyalty in modern society. The sweep of his book and the depth of his analysis make it essential reading for anyone interested in connecting past to present in order to chart a felicitous path to the future.” ―Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, and author of Journey into America: the Challenge of Islam

About the Author

Mark S. Weiner teaches constitutional law and legal history at Rutgers School of Law in Newark, New Jersey. He is the author of Black Trials: Citizenship from the Beginnings of Slavery to the End of Caste, recipient of the Silver Gavel Award of the American Bar Association; and Americans without Law: The Racial Boundaries of Citizenship, recipient of the President's Book Award of the Social Science History Association. He lives with his wife in Connecticut.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ONE
 
INDIVIDUALISM’S PARADOX
       Imagine that one fine morning you are strolling down the sidewalk on your way to work. Suddenly, a young jogger wearing headphones turns the corner, running swiftly, oblivious to the world around him. He crashes into you and as you hit the ground you feel a sharp pain in your arm, which quickly begins to swell. It’s broken. Soon after visiting your doctor, you contact your lawyer. He begins a civil suit against the jogger so that you can be compensated for your injury.        The case is open and shut. The jogger was clearly at fault and he will be held accountable for the harm he caused.
       Next, imagine that you decide to open a small business, perhaps a bakery specializing in German-style breads. You rent the perfect building for the shop and visit your local bank for a loan. The loan officer reviews your excellent business plan and approves it. You sign your name to a stack of papers he slides across his desk and soon you have the capital you need to purchase ovens and other equipment. You are now responsible for repaying the loan.        Nobody could seriously question your liability or the bank’s right to be repaid.
       In both these cases, the law’s basic focus, what social scientists call its framework of analysis or its “jural unit,” is the individual rather than the family. In the case of the errant jogger, when your lawyer contacts the jogger’s lawyer, he will make a claim against the jogger and not against the jogger’s brother or sister, who are irrelevant to the suit. Likewise, your own brother or sister will have no claim to any settlement money you might receive.
       In the case of your business venture, too, much as you might wish to do so, you can’t foist your financial obligations onto others without their consent. By taking out a loan, you don’t make your family members responsible for the success or failure of your bakery. At the same time, you needn’t obtain their permission to take out a loan in the first place. The law makes you responsible for meeting your financial obligations and it also enables you to contract for them yourself, with your own signature.
       This individualist focus is fundamental to the law of modern liberal societies. It lies at the core of nations that trace their democratic political heritage to the Enlightenment and their economic roots to the Industrial Revolution—and that hold individual self-fulfillment and personal development as a central moral value. Indeed, legal individualism is so basic to the social fabric of liberal societies that most of us who live in them take it as a matter of course.1
       In an election, you cast your vote for yourself alone, rather than for your household, village, or tribe. Doing so would seem absurd—it would contravene the axiomatic principle of “one person, one vote.” Nor does the head of your household, village, or tribe vote on your behalf.
       When you enter into a marriage, you alone incur its benefits and obligations. A wedding may bind two families together in a metaphorical sense. But it doesn’t establish a relationship between them as a matter of law, for instance by requiring them to come to each other’s mutual aid or military defense.
       If one evening you are watching a movie and a notorious thief, John “Quick Hands” Smith, steals your car, police will seek to capture and arrest John Smith. If instead the officers arrest his staid brother Jack, an accountant, explaining to a judge that after all Jack is related to John, the officers will be disciplined. Likewise, when you call the police station to report the incident, you will be asked for your street address rather than the name of your grandparents—your lineage is irrelevant to whether the state will protect you from crime.
       Such individualism extends as well to the legal issues of property and inheritance. In liberal societies, land need not be owned in common by tribal groups or village associations, as it is in many parts of the world, with individuals having only a temporary and limited claim to its use, known as a usufruct interest. Instead, land can be held by individuals, who have a general right to do with it as they wish, including the right to exclude others from its benefits.
       Similarly, in common law jurisdictions, people are free to will their estates to whomever they please (civil law jurisdictions impose some limits on this principle). Assuming they comply with technical rules for creating trusts, people may even decide that upon their death their assets will pass to their dogs or cats, as did the flamboyant real estate tycoon Leona Helmsley, who left twelve million dollars in trust for her Maltese dog, Trouble. Whether or not it results in wise or just decisions in any particular case—it often quite clearly does not—a person’s wealth is deemed to be his or her own.
       All these facts may seem self-evident, perhaps even obvious. But if one looks beneath them, they point to an essential paradox about individual freedom, a paradox that’s illuminated by examining the subject of this book: the rule of the clan.
       It’s a common and understandable belief that liberty exists only when the state is absent or weak. Many people often imply that individual freedom flourishes in inverse proportion to the strength and scope of government. The argument is a perennial feature of American political discourse (“freedom means the absence of government coercion,” asserts a prominent recent presidential candidate), though it is hardly limited to the United States.2 A deep antipathy to the modern state was a core principle of the United States’ longtime enemy Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, who sought, in the words of his manifesto The Green Book, “emancipation from the chains of all instruments of government.”3 Likewise, guided by a compelling spiritual vision, Mohandas Gandhi advocated for a stateless society of local self-rule for postcolonial India, in which power would be radically decentralized to ancient village communities—panchayati raj. He and his followers campaigned for “as minimal a ‘state’ as possible,” following the maxim “keep government to the minimum, and what you must have, decentralize.”4
       Yet, whatever form it takes, the belief that individual freedom exists only when the state is frail misunderstands the source of liberty. The state can be more or less effective in the pursuit of its goals—it can be stupid or smart—and it can be used for illiberal, totalitarian ends. But ultimately a healthy state dedicated to the public interest makes individual freedom possible.
       This is the paradox of individualism. The individual freedom that citizens of liberal societies rightly cherish, even our very concept of the individual, is impossible without a robust state. Modern individualism depends on the existence of vigorous and effective government dedicated to the public interest, to policies that a majority of citizens would support without regard to their particular position in society at any given moment. It depends as well on the willingness of individual citizens to imagine themselves as members of a common public whose interests the state regularly vindicates.
       The state maintains a system of courts to ensure that people play by the rules, rather than resorting to trickery or force to advance their interests. It provides professionally trained police to safeguard people from crime; fire protection to prevent collective disaster; and military power to defend against threats from abroad. It constructs roads and bridges, builds or subsidizes utilities, and supports mass education to encourage economic growth and foster human capital. To mitigate major social and economic risk in advance of calamity, it operates a wide range of regulatory programs, such as those that safeguard the public health or oversee financial instruments, and it provides security for individuals through various forms of welfare.
       Most important, the state stipulates the receipt of these benefits not on a person’s membership in an inescapable group but simply on his or her status as an individual.
       Your ability to obtain redress for injury, to enter into contracts on your own terms, to use land and other property, to dispose of your wealth, to be protected from crime, and to access a range of goods and services all depend on the state treating the individual—you—as a member of a community of legal equals.
       The legal status of the individual under a strong liberal state, in which healthy government and robust individualism go hand in hand, might be represented in simple visual form this way: [DIAGRAM]
       In a modern liberal society the state, represented by the large circle, is vigorous and effective, clearly demarcating and defining the community it surrounds. The discrete individuals living under the authority of the state, the smaller circles, are in turn equally vital and independent. An essential aim of the liberal legal tradition, as important as its goal of limiting state power—though we are often unmindful of its centrality—has been to build state capacities to ensure such vitality and independe...

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Kinship is Not Enough
By Leif W. Haase
Recently the New York Times highlighted the results of studies showing that young people who develop explicit family narratives show greater resilience and security when difficulty strikes. Many pieces of similar evidence show that embracing solidarity and kinship can help blunt the slings and arrows of misfortune, and in particular the sense of rootlessness that modern individualism so often creates.

In this thoughtful and often brilliant book the legal scholar and cultural historian Mark Weiner pays a fitting tribute to the values of the "clan," with far-flung examples taken from the lives of the Nuer in Africa, the Scots, the Pashtuns, Icelanders, and more. He resurrects, for example, the great and much-neglected Saga of Burnt Njal, an Icelandic classic which got a brief moment in the sun during the Great Books movement of the past century, has languished since, and reads like a marriage between J.R.R. Tolkien and Jo Nesbo.

Weiner's book is more than worth its price simply as an armchair tour of interesting places and cultures and mores, deftly and briefly described. But he has a more serious and important point to make. While the social cohesion that the values of the clan promote is alluring, they are ultimately at odds with the values of individual autonomy that only the much-maligned modern liberal state can offer.

Even the state's modern defenders tend to view it, at best, as a necessary evil. It keeps the peace, upholds (somewhat) international order, and manages the complexity of modern life in ways that allow individuals to get on with their journeys of personal fulfillment.

Weiner shows (in too brief but nevertheless eloquent ways) that this reductive view of the state is insufficient to resist the seductive appeal of the clan, and that it will be for the worse if we can't find ways to combat this allure within the legal structures of modern liberalism. Read alongside James Ault's masterful participant study of fundamentalist Baptism, *Spirit and Flesh*, and draw your own conclusions.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Explains a lot about politics and government both today and throughout history
By Amy Perry
Often, nonfiction does not hold my attention, even if it is about a topic that I thought would interest me. This book is an exception. Drawing upon others' research as well as his own, Weiner shows convincingly (to me, at least) that family-based power will govern when few or no other structures exist in a society. He helped me understand the reasons for many actions and qualities of clan-like organizations. I now see patterns in many political and cultural struggles around the world today. The book flows along at just the right pace.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Extended Family Matters (a lot)
By L. King
Weiner's main thesis extends that of 19th century jurist Sir Henry Maine who's observations became the heart of British colonial policy but also Marx and Engels. Maine contended that societies in their early stages based power and governance on the status of individuals within a tradition of extended family groups. Status determined position, deference, role and expected behaviour which maintain the harmony of the community Even the outsider has their place. In contrast the liberal state creates a social contract with each member affording equality, protection, freedom and opportunity for individuals, and the formation of ad hoc group relationships. The technological extreme is reflected by a remark by LinkedIn's founder (and Weiner's college friend) Reid Hoffman: "In the future everyone will be able to choose their own family". Maine's key concept is that there is a natural progression "from status to contract".

The examples provided are informative, wide ranging and entertaining. The Asian case studies include Korea and the Philippines with brief glances at China and Japan. SE Asia covers India's castes, Punjabi courts and family law the pashtunawali (hospitality) ethos of Afghanistan and Pakistans. We are led to despair over the power vacuum of the `stans of the former Soviet Union slide to personality based variations of the parody Borat. Interesting parallels are raised between the evolution of Christianized Germanic and English law and the rise of Islamic law as a counter to the tribalism of the medieval Saudi peninsula. In Africa Weiner describes the early 1930s studies of the fiercely independent Nuer tribes of the Sudan. Another major example (Chapter 5) is the highly decentralized but very democratic case of Medieval Iceland. Briefly he touches on the Seneca and Mohawk of North America. And, not unsurprisingly, the same anthropological analysis gets applied to literature: Romeo and Juliet, Michener's Caravans, Sir Walter Scott's Waverly to name a few.

Both kinds of societies have their own checks and balances though Weiner feels that liberalism scales better. Where both liberal and Marxist colonialism failed however was in the rapid imposition of status on tribal societies. One example is in Africa where endorsement of particular tribal chiefs led to the rise of powerful dictators unchecked by traditional safeguards, and exacerbated by restrictions on tribal means of gathering wealth - the sale of ivory, slaves, tribute or raids on neighbouring villages. Another was also an unforeseen mismatch between English and Islamic law, according to Professor John Farmer (also Weiner's Dean at Rutgers School of Law) who was an adviser on dispute mechanisms to the Palestinian Authority. The common use of bail is to allow the accused to be released to the custody of family or friends. Under Sharia however the family of the victim of violence is allowed to set the punishment for a crime, either in kind or a monetary penalty. Farmer noted , in cases of violence, bail is sometimes paid by the victim's family, who exact their own justice.

Overall a worthwhile read and a powerful way to re-imagine the world. My biggest disappointment was that it needed to be longer. For example it would have been interesting to have examined "old boys" networks, family compacts like the Borgias and Medicis, 18th-20th century Europe, family networks in ancient Rome, or tribal factions in Syria and Lebanon, crime gangs in America. Similarly the author could have looked at the budding field of SNA (Social Network Analysis) to compare the patterns of liberal societies with those of traditional clans

Thought provoking and recommended!

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Mac Griswold's The Manor is the biography of a uniquely American place that has endured through wars great and small, through fortunes won and lost, through histories bright and sinister―and of the family that has lived there since its founding as a Colonial New England slave plantation three and a half centuries ago.
In 1984, the landscape historian Mac Griswold was rowing along a Long Island creek when she came upon a stately yellow house and a garden guarded by looming boxwoods. She instantly knew that boxwoods that large―twelve feet tall, fifteen feet wide―had to be hundreds of years old. So, as it happened, was the house: Sylvester Manor had been held in the same family for eleven generations.
Formerly encompassing all of Shelter Island, New York, a pearl of 8,000 acres caught between the North and South Forks of Long Island, the manor had dwindled to 243 acres. Still, its hidden vault proved to be full of revelations and treasures, including the 1666 charter for the land, and correspondence from Thomas Jefferson. Most notable was the short and steep flight of steps the family had called the "slave staircase," which would provide clues to the extensive but little-known story of Northern slavery. Alongside a team of archaeologists, Griswold began a dig that would uncover a landscape bursting with stories.
Based on years of archival and field research, as well as voyages to Africa, the West Indies, and Europe, The Manor is at once an investigation into forgotten lives and a sweeping drama that captures our history in all its richness and suffering. It is a monumental achievement.

• Sales Rank: #425762 in Books
• Brand: Brand: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Published on: 2013-07-02
• Released on: 2013-07-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.41" h x 1.61" w x 6.33" l, 1.60 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Features

• Used Book in Good Condition

Review

“Griswold's deft unpacking of the Sylvester Manor mystery reveals the uncomfortable, complicated history they left behind....[A] precise, beautiful book...Haunting.” ―The Boston Globe

“Extraordinary...This is an important book, for it is not just about a house. It is about the world and the destruction we have caused in it, all for the sake of making that place called home.” ―Jamaica Kincaid

“History buffs will love The Manor, and it tells a story that needs to be told....[The house is] a remarkable relic of American history.” ―The Washington Post

“Griswold skillfully weaves a historical tapestry of considerable complexity.” ―Women's Wear Daily

“A lively history of early American settlement...Like that Pulitzer Prize-winning work [The Hemingses of Monticello], The Manor is American history tightly compressed.” ―The Atlantic Wire

About the Author
Mac Griswold is a cultural landscape historian and the author of Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon and The Golden Age of American Gardens. She has won a Guggenheim Fellowship and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Travel + Leisure. She lives in Sag Harbor, New York.

Most helpful customer reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
The Sylvesters
By Kate Paup
I first became acquainted with the Sylvesters while researching my immigrant ancestor, John Booth, who was a business partner of Nathaniel Sylvester. I read anything that can give me a taste of what eastern Long Island was like in the seventeen century, and this book was everything I hoped it would be. Nathaniel did not leave a diary, but the author, Mac Griswold, using scientific observation, historical record, and family records, made the life and times of the Sylvesters come alive. I felt like this book was written with me in mind, giving me a portal to discover what life was like not only on Shelter Island, but also early colonial America. Of course, I was most interested in events that touch my ancestor, such as the purchase of the island from the native indians, a shipwreck carrying them toward their new home, their support and protection of Quakers, and my ancestor's signature on the inventory of Nathaniel's estate after his death.

I also gained a lot of insight into early Amsterdam, where Nathaniel grew up, and was moved by her description of early slave trading. She also was vivid in her descriptions of what daily life was like for a family living on their own plantation island with only slaves, Indians and occasional visitors, such as Mary Dyer and George Fox, the founder of the Quakers. I expect to read this book again and again.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Great history, wonderful reading!!!
By FredBrem
The Manor is a powerful, evocative, poetic and beautifully crafted book. The contradictions and "subsurface" tragedy in the history of this northern island slave plantation go so deep -- and the human efforts (from today's vantage point) are so intentional, blind and immense -- that it's necessary to read The Manor slowly, valuing Griswold's impeccable work and doing one's best to absorb all the years and levels.

Griswold's own experiences while writing The Manor unfold throughout the book, augmenting the primary narrative and at times providing a temporary (welcome) haven for the reader. The beauty of this historic landscape itself, through the years and seasons, also offers solace.

Beyond the narrative itself, Griswold has captured the larger dichotomies brilliantly. So much of what is so seriously flawed in today's economic, political, and ecological human systems -- as well as the seeds of so much that is beautiful and good in American culture -- grew out of Early Modern European capitalism and the (Dutch) triangular trade. It's that portion of The Manor's legacy that all of us have inherited.

I'm sharing this book with friends (and maybe a friend's book group?) as essential reading.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Wonderfully Historic
By Dorothy (Dottie)
I purchased this book from Amazon and received it on July 2nd and did not put it down, unless I had to for other reasons. Spellbinding!

But I love history and had never studied New York before. A wonderful introduction. The author is an amazing researcher and writer. I even read "Sylvester Manor Time Line", her "Notes", studied "Bibliography" and "Acknowledgents" at the back of the book; my hesitation for the book to end.

The last three pages of the history; 317, 318 and 319; brought chills and tears to learn that the "Manor" is still being well taken care of. Nathaniel and Grizzell, wherever they are watching from, are sure to be very, very proud of their extended family.

This is a story written in narrative; conversations are not necessary. Good luck to Mac.

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~ Free Ebook The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth: A Life, by Frances Wilson

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Described by the writer and opium addict Thomas De Quincey as “the very wildest . . . person I have ever known,” DorothyWordsworth was neither the self-effacing spinster nor the sacrificial saint of common telling. A brilliant stylist in her own right, Dorothy was at the center of the Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century. She was her brother William Wordsworth’s inspiration, aide, and most valued reader, and a friend to Coleridge; both borrowed from her observations of the world for their own poems.William wrote of her, “She gave me eyes, she gave me ears.”

In order to remain at her brother’s side, Dorothy sacrificed both marriage and comfort, jealously guarding their close-knit domesticity—one marked by a startling freedom from social convention. In the famed Grasmere Journals, Dorothy kept a record of this idyllic life together. The tale that unfolds through her brief, electric entries reveals an intense bond between brother and sister, culminating in Dorothy’s dramatic collapse on the day of William’s wedding to their childhood friend Mary Hutchinson. Dorothy lived out the rest of her years with her brother and Mary. The woman who strode the hills in all hours and all weathers would eventually retreat into the house for the last three decades of her life.

In this succinct, arresting biography, Frances Wilson reveals Dorothy in all her complexity. From the coiled tension of Dorothy’s journals, she unleashes the rich emotional life of a woman determined to live on her own terms, and honors her impact on the key figures of Romanticism.

• Sales Rank: #796048 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-17
• Released on: 2009-02-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.52" h x 1.16" w x 5.88" l, 16.80 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This sensitive and elegantly written life of Dorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855), sister of the poet William Wordsworth, centers on four small notebooks, her so-called Grasmere Journals. These journals reveal how William functioned as Dorothy's male muse and how she, more traditionally, was his. What is most untraditional, and certainly peculiar, is the not-quite-stated true relationship between brother and sister. Commentators and biographers describe Dorothy Wordsworth as having virtually no inner life, existing solely for and through her brother. Yet, Wilson relates, the opium-eater De Quincey found her a most sensuous creature; she was a big part of William's friendship with Coleridge as well. First teasing out Dorothy's truly rich interior life through careful examination of the journals and other writings, Wilson (Literary Seductions) then uncovers the nature of Dorothy's emotional connections to William, his work, his wife and even the French mistress he had as a younger man. Most controversial in the Grasmere Journals are several blotted lines regarding William's wedding ring—which Dorothy wore to sleep the night before the wedding. These lines, as well as Dorothy's visionary tendencies, her migraines and trances, almost of an epileptic nature, and a long depressive decline are scrupulously analyzed. 31 illus. (Feb. 24)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Wilson investigated such intimate writerly alliances as the marriage of Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley in Literary Seductions (2000) and now returns to the realm of the Romantic poets in this highly charged and forthright biography of Dorothy Wordsworth, sister and muse to William. Speculation runs high regarding the true nature of the intense bond between these unconventional siblings known for their epic country walks during which William composed the poetry Dorothy put to paper. Reunited after a harsh childhood separation in the wake of their mother’s early death, they lived and traveled together even after William married Mary Hutchinson (Dorothy even accompanied them on their honeymoon). Wilson emphasizes Dorothy’s heightened response to nature in her writing, especially the oft-studied Grasmere Journals, analyzing both her rhapsodic passages and “crisp forensic objectivity,” and surmises that Dorothy suffered from migraines and anorexia. Wilson then squarely addresses the incest question, arguing that Dorothy and William’s closeness was spiritual, not carnal, and that the two writers needed each other to feel whole. A “perpetual third party,” Dorothy Wordsworth finally steps out of the shadows in this assured and involving reclamation of an intriguing, literary figure. --Donna Seaman

Review

“Elegant . . . Ms. Wilson’s decision to limit her scope was a small bit of genius. She’s written a succinct yet roomy book, one that moves along with novelistic buoyancy and grace. She gets the facts-to-fancy ratio, always a difficult one for a biographer to weigh, exactly right. She lays out the essentials of Dorothy Wordsworth’s life like a well-orchestrated banquet, leaving no doubt that the resonating years 1800­–3 are the bravura main course . . . In The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth, Ms. Wilson strides purposefully through Wordsworth’s intoxicating life, quibbling when needed with earlier biographers, poking into every bit of tangled brush, triangulating her subject’s life through the work of many other writers, some of them contemporary. The range of this biographer’s references is wide, and wickedly inclusive. One chapter begins with a quotation from the political-punk band Gang of Four: ‘This heaven gives me migraine.’ This book, its own kind of heaven, gave me quite the opposite.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“Entertaining and sometimes ingenious . . . Wilson . . . makes a strong case for taking a fresh look at Dorothy Wordsworth . . . [She] dives deep and headlong into the journals, applying various modern psychological and medical hypotheses. She comes up with some fascinating insights.” —Jamie James, Los Angeles Times

“Sensitive and elegantly written.” —Publishers Weekly

“Frances Wilson’s gifts as a textual critic, and her flair for dramatic storytelling, have delivered a new and potent Dorothy Wordsworth for the 21st century. In its precision and subtlety, her book has the power of a great portrait miniature.” —Mark Bostridge, The Independent on Sunday

“[Wilson] is not always respectful, but she is always interesting . . . This gripping narrative presents a character more subtle than the devoted, self-effacing amanuensis of tradition, or the later feminist stereotype.” —Margaret Drabble, The Times Literary Supplement

 “An elegant, psychologically astute and original book.” —Virginia Rounding, The Observer 

“[A] fine biography . . . Eloquent in her revelation of Dorothy’s tormented private self, Wilson is equally sensitive and astute in her reading of the journals.” —Miranda Seymour, The Times (London)

“The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth doesn’t disappoint . . . She writes with a definite sense of astonishment, but controls it with calm scholarly interest and a prevailing mood of humane tolerance. The combination is deeply attractive and original.” —Andrew Motion, The Guardian

“Beautifully written, at times combative, and displaying a formidable knowledge of literature . . . Dorothy emerges as a fascinating woman—neither a handmaiden nor a victim but a talented and broken human being.” —Richard King, The Sydney Morning Herald

“[An] enjoyable and original book . . . Frances Wilson sensitively analyses this intense relationship, and provides a cleverly structured commentary on the journal as a whole . . . Wilson is a good scholar and her judgment is sound; moreover, she is not afraid to use her imagination to carefully explore what cannot be verified.” —Adam Sisman, The Irish Times

“Sympathetic . . . Informed by delicacy and common sense . . . The writing is often lovely, and there are many moving, observant collations between the journal entries and William’s poems.” —Ann Wroe, The Daily Telegraph

 

“This searing portrait of Dorothy Wordsworth draws on her celebrated journals but refracts them through a distinctly now sensibility. This is not the Dorothy so movingly addressed at the conclusion of her brother’s magnum opus ‘Tintern Abbey.’ Nor is this the self-effacing sororal companion of the poet’s youth, and helpmeet and support of his sedate later life. Here, she is at the center of a nest of incest, anorexia, and destructive passions reminiscent of Wuthering heights (indeed, Wilson speculates that Emily Brontë based Heathcliff and Cathy on her understanding of the relationship between the Wordsworth siblings). For all the author’s aggressively contemporary psychological perspectives, Wilson has produced a deeply insightful, disturbing correcting to the conventional understanding of the angel of Dove Cottage.” —The Atlantic Monthly “Graceful, perceptive and poignant.” —Kirkus Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Strange fits of passion, indeed --
By Philadelphia Reader
This biography was by turns acute, impressionistic, and provocative. I am still musing on it days later. I thoroughly enjoyed Wilson's teasing out of Dorothy Wordsworth's interior life, which takes a lot of concentrated study, I would guess, judging by the fragments of Wordsworth's journals that are reproduced here. She seems to be a writer whose prime interest was in containment and re-direction. I wish I had read a more conventional biography of her first, however, as The Ballad does not make a claim to be a cradle to grave re-telling; rather it is concerned with the psychological reality of a high point in Wordsworth's life, the three years she spent with her brother in the Lake District. Coming to her life a relative innocent, thus, it was hard for me to put some of the incidents in context.

As much richness as Wilson is able to bring out of her material, however, I did wish that at some places she had pushed for more. A few times in the book we're given tantalizing glimpses of how William Wordsworth might have been a controlling presence -- he tried to prevent his daughter from marrying, for instance, and seemed to have used up all the emotional intensity of two women, his sister and his wife, as his due. How would that characteristic have played out in the intimate confines of Dove Cottage before his marriage? Conversely, how did Dorothy manipulate those around her? She seems to have had a magnetic effect not only on her brother but on the other writers of that group, Coleridge and de Quincy, for instance. How was that accomplished? And how was this played out with relatively powerless people? Wilson mentions that Dorothy wanted to control the behavior of William's oldest daughter because the little girl's energetic personality was recognized as too wild and in need of subjection. But might Dorothy also have wanted little Dora out of the way (she was sent to boarding school at the more than tender age of 4) because she recognized a rival to herself?

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A Sister's Tale
By Barbara Stoner
Liked this book very much. It was a friendly companion on my recent trip - I finished it in the village of Grasmere, not a block from where Dorothy and William Wordsworth are buried. It would be easy to call her life tragic, but in view of the times in which she lived, she was able to live at least some semblance of a life she chose.

1 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
WORDSWORTH: WILLIAM DA BORE
By Jack Peachum/ Milton G. Crocker
ACADEMIC BOOK GUY HERE/ JACK PEACHUM:
There are folks to whom excitement doesn't come easy-- & there are others to whom it never comes at all.
The only problem w/ this book-- & one I was half-expecting when I bought it-- is the subject matter. Wordsworth was the dullest human being who ever walked the face of the earth-- & his sister ain't far behind him.
If he ever had an exciting thought, he didn't write it down.
A democratic-revolutionary in France? That's just not possible!
Wordsworth's poetry is dull, his life is dull, his sister is dull-- dull dull DULL! If the author could've proved some incest-- but between you & me, I think even incest between these two would've been boring! The kind of BJ where you nod off even before the action gets going.
On the other hand, the writing of this biographer is good-- better than the Fraud of the Lakes. I can't say enough about the biographer-- she almost manages to lift the snooze-powder out of the life here portrayed.
I'd pass this tome along to someone who's got an evening to kill & a PHD to earn.
ACADEMIC BOOK GUY/ JACK PEACHUM

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^ PDF Download The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers

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A magnificent, multifaceted novel about a supremely gifted -- and divided -- family, set against the backdrop of postwar America

On Easter day, 1939, at Marian Anderson's epochal concert on the Washington Mall, David Strom, a German Jewish émigré scientist, meets Delia Daley, a young Philadelphia Negro studying to be a singer. Their mutual love of music draws them together, and--against all odds and better judgment--they marry. They vow to raise their children beyond time, beyond identity, steeped in song. But their three children must survive America's brutal here and now. Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up during the Civil Rights era, come of age in the violent 1960s, and live out adulthood in the racially retrenched late century. Jonah, the eldest, "whose voice could make heads of state repent," follows a life in his parents' beloved classical music. Ruth, the youngest, chooses a militant activism and repudiates the white culture her brother represents. Joseph, the middle child and the narrator of this generational tale, struggles to remain connected to them both.

The Time of Our Singing is a story of self-invention, allegiance, race, cultural ownership, the compromised power of music, and the tangled loops of time that rewrite all belonging.

• Sales Rank: #333874 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.88" w x 6.50" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 640 pages

Amazon.com Review
In some respects, Richard Powers's The Time of Our Singing is just a big, absorbing drama about an American family, with the typical ingredients of an immigrant parent and some social obstacles--in this case, a biracial marriage in the Civil Rights era--to be overcome by the talented children. But Powers's lyrical gifts lift this material far above its familiar subject matter. His descriptions of music alone will transport the reader. The Strom family were raised with this common language: "Our parents' Crazed Quotations game played on the notion that every moment's tune had all history's music box for its counterpoint. On any evening in Hamilton Heights, we could jump from organum to atonality without any hint of all the centuries that had died fiery deaths between them." The central figure of this novel is the dazzling Jonah, who makes a life from singing, and who may be the only person around him who regards his racial heritage as irrelevant to his ambitions. Powers's is such a fertile writer, however, that he can't stay with any single story, but plunges into pages and pages of family and social histories. The result is a rambling, resonant, fearless novel that pulls the reader along in its wake. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly
Powers (Plowing the Dark, etc.) has generated considerable excitement as a novelist of ideas, but as a creator of characters, he is on shakier ground. Here he confronts his weaknesses head-on, crafting a hefty family saga that attempts to probe generational conflicts, sibling rivalries and racial identity. The book follows the mixed-race Strom family through much of the 20th century, from 1939 when German-Jewish physicist David Strom meets Delia Daley, a black, classically trained singer from Philadelphia through the 1990s. The couple marries and has three children: eldest son Jonah, a charismatic, egotistical singing prodigy; Joseph, his self-sacrificing accompanist; and Ruth, the rebel of the family, who becomes a militant black activist. There are two separate strands to the story: one is a third-person chronicle of David and Delia's relationship through the 1940s; the other, narrated by Joseph, is about the brothers' education in the nearly all-white world of classical music and their experience of the civil rights movement as the rest of the country grudgingly catches up to the Stroms' radical experiment. Powers's premise is intriguing, and the plot's architecture is impressive, informed by the notion, from physics, of space-time wrinkles and time curves. Missing, however, are the pulse-quickening vintage-Powers moments in which his discussions of technology and science open up profound existential quandaries. Most of the book is taken up with a prolonged, overdetermined and off-key examination of family relationships and identity struggles. Narrator Joseph is supposed to be eclipsed by his brother, but Powers overshoots the mark: for half the book, Joseph is little more than a pair of eyes and ears. Powers's depiction of how public events filter into individual consciousness can also be surprisingly unimaginative; Joseph periodically runs down a list of current events, using stale, iconic imagery ("our hatless boy president plays touch football on the White House lawn"). Powers deserves credit for taking a risk, but his own experiment reveals his startling tone deafness to the subtle inflections of human experience.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Delia Daley met David Strom on Easter Sunday in Washington, DC, in 1939 at a concert by Marion Anderson held outside the Lincoln Memorial after the DAR refused to let her perform indoors. And so the talented black woman from Philadelphia and the German Jewish refugee physicist and teacher from Columbia University fall in love and create a universe that parallels the history of time, music, and civil rights. Powers (Plowing the Dark) moves between present and past, with sections of the novel, not really chapters, alternating between the third person and a first-person account narrated by the Stroms' middle child and younger son, Joseph. While Delia is refused a prestigious musical education because of her race, Einstein himself suggests that the couple's elder son, Jonah, take singing lessons to further his obvious talent. Meanwhile, daughter Ruth questions her mixed heritage, and her actions mirror the growth of black militancy throughout the country as civil rights takes hold. The title of this book pervades each page, with the structure of time and the discipline of singing woven throughout. The language is dense, often difficult; this reviewer, who takes singing lessons, found the descriptions of technique mesmerizing but elusive. Did I mention physics? Powers's work is undoubtedly complex, but his stories are compelling, lyrical, and timeless. Readers who invest the time in this lengthy novel will be rewarded. Recommended for all literary fiction collections.
--Bette-Lee Fox, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most helpful customer reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
Too long for a good song
By MartinP
This book was enthusiastically recommended to me by a friend, and the reviews I read of it made me even more eager to read it. Now, having finished it, I find myself rather disappointed, yet somewhat hesitant to give an opinion. The writing itself is of such quality and, often, sheer beauty, and the scope of its themes is so monumental, that I cannot help but admire the writer for his audacity and skill. Of course, likes and dislikes are always matters of taste, but this eventual "dislike" had me wondering if the fault was with this particular reader rather than the novel. Still, the book left me, if not exactly bored, strangely exasperated. It seems to be one of those novels where the story does not evolve naturally from the characters, but where the characters are elaborate mechanisms for dispensing philosophical and political ideas. A suspicion Powers tries to repel by cramming his pages with picturesque and quaint individual detail, and by rehashing the central motives (race, time, music) in a way that verges on the obsessive - bloating this book to a daunting 630 pages in the process.
The Time of Our Singing tells the story of a black woman and a jewish man who decide to marry after meeting at a musical event-slash-antidiscrimination rally. Their mixed marriage is the bane of her parents, and of the central characters in the novel, the two sons and the daughter issueing from their bond. One of the sons grows into a singer of world class stature, while the other is tossed to and fro between the claims made on him by his brother as a fellow-musician, and by his sister as a fellow black person. After the tragic death of the mother, their scientist father is incapable of keeping his family on track, as he drifts off into an esoteric world of physics centring on the idea that time is directionless and that everything is present at the same time - a metaphor Powers takes just one step too far towards the end of the book. The singer brother eventually ditches his solocareer to join an early music group in Belgium, while the sister becomes a pro-black activist. The insurmountable problem of race is at the core of it all, and is elaborately dished out in the stories of no less than 4 generations. Add to that lots (lots!) of talk about music, and uncommon levels of musical accomplishment in so many characters as to defy believability; - and put all that against the backdrop of half a century of racial confusion in the US. Then, maybe, you may understand something of my feeling that this book is trying to deal with a few Big Themes too many for its own good.
Things are not helped by the very obvious desire of Powers to be profound and moving, an aim in which he is defeated by the way he lays it on way too thick. Sorry as I am to say it, page 630 came as somewhat of a relief, and his characters left me quite unmoved, even if his writing itself at times didn't.

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This is The Great American Novel
By Chris Rohmann
This is The Great American Novel, period. The only book I've bought multiple copies of, to give away. It's everything our poor dear country is about -- a masterpiece.

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This is why I LOVE reading, because of writers like Richard Powers.
By Yoli46
Brilliant. One of the best books I've ever read in my life.
I wanted to underline every passage, every sentence.

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