The Known World, Edward P. Jones
The Known World, Edward P. Jones
8 Rating(s)
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Known World

Author: Edward P. Jones

Narrator: Kevin R. Free

Unabridged: 13 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/15/2004


Synopsis

In one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Edward P. Jones, two-time National Book Award finalist, tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can't uphold the estate's order and chaos ensues. In a daring and ambitious novel, Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all of its moral complexities. Performed by Kevin Free

About Edward P. Jones

Edward P. Jones, the New York Times bestselling author, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World; he also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004. His first collection of stories, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short listed for the National Book Award. His second collection, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award. He has been an instructor of fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. He lives in Washington, D.C.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Michele on 2007-06-05 19:38:42

The depth of description and feeling in this book reminded me of Cold Moutain. Yet I found this even more riveting. The author includes a list and description of the characters, should the reader forget a relationship.

AudiobooksNow review by Sara on 2007-09-01 20:48:26

This book was so authentic emotionally and in its level of detail and realism that it was hard to accept it as fiction!

AudiobooksNow review by Rolando on 2007-11-02 16:18:12

Historically, the book is a great review of a difficult period in American history. The narrative is difficult to follow because the timeline is all over the place.

AudiobooksNow review by Richard on 2013-11-19 21:42:29

Agony. Pain. Misery. Torture. You will experience all of the above trying to follow this book. Exercise your freedom. Run away from this novel. I really was excited to read this one, but could not follow the endless list of characters and their families. If you like reading phone books, you will love this.

Goodreads review by Jason on July 26, 2008

Manchester County, Virginia doesn't exist. Never has. After reading The Known World, however, you'd be forgiven if you thought you could take a tour of it's plantations and slave cemetaries on your vacation to colonial Williamsburg. The complicated pre-civil war Southern society that Edward P. Jones......more

Goodreads review by karen on July 12, 2018

there is that old adage that a good book will tell you how to read it. and i have no idea to whom that should be attributed, only that my undergrad professors seemed to have been born to quote that thought endlessly: in my gothic lit class, my enlightenment class, my victorian lit class... the afric......more

Goodreads review by Michael on July 29, 2017

I know this is a critically acclaimed book, a Pulitzer winner, and a book tackling a difficult and complex stain on America history: slavery and black slave owners. There are moments when the book does say some interesting things or reveal some unsavory and uncomfortable truths, but it was so hard t......more

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on July 15, 2024

Ambitious, Interesting, Disorganized In an interview, Edward P. Jones revealed that The Known World took shape around 1) when he heard that Black people had owned slaves and 2) when he read a thin paperback in high school about a Jewish man who decided to join the Nazi party, how he acted in oppositi......more

Goodreads review by Candi on March 02, 2019

This is a complex novel, with dense writing, a non-linear structure, and an abundance of characters. It reads much like a true historical account of a place, Manchester County, Virginia, and time, pre-Civil War 1800s. This could very nearly have passed for a non-fiction book; each character feels so......more