Major Washington
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A historical novel about the Seven Years’ War, a conflict that shaped a young George Washington decades before the American Revolution.
On May 28, 1754, the colonial militia surrounded a party of French-Canadian soldiers. With 15 minutes of rifle fire, the colonists slaughtered the French, then allowed Indian guides to take the corpses’ scalps. Observing this grisly scene was a towering young major named George Washington. In the aftermath of the Battle of Jumonville Glen, Washington retreated to Fort Necessity, where he was soon forced to surrender, signing a document claiming responsibility for the assassination of French troops. The result would be the Seven Years’ War—the greatest international conflict the globe had ever seen. It would also be the making of a statesman.
In this rousing historical novel, Michael Kilian reconstructs the events in Washington’s life that led to that pivotal day at Jumonville Glen and molded the man who would create a country.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For a closer look at the legendary man who became our country's first president, Chicago Tribune columnist (and writer for the cartoon strip Dick Tracy) Kilian focuses on three critical years in the life of George Washington, 1753-1755. Seen through the eyes of fictional colleague Thomas Morley, young Washington is a charismatic, imposing figure whose fierce ambition and passion may have been the catalyst for the French and Indian War. We also get a glimpse of the individual behind the heroics, the man who suffers devastating bouts of "the flux," embarrassingly bad teeth and the heartache of loving Sally Fairfax, the wife of his close friend and supporter. By rather fussily attempting to replicate Colonial English in his first-person narrative, however, Kilian sometimes distracts from his plot and invites questions of historical authenticity. Since the story centers on three forays into and beyond the Appalachian Mountains, Kilian is hard pressed to differentiate the first two trips. He is at his best in the third trek, describing Washington's harrowing experience as a major aide-de-camp to British General Edward Braddock. Without any clear rationale, the author telescopes nearly two decades into the final two chapters rather than end the book in the 1750s. Still, the novel is full of amusing tidbits, including a recipe for milk punch alongside the symptoms of Ben Franklin's eczema.
