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Eclipse
Lewis and forever paired for their epochal first crossing of the continent in 1804-1806, darlings of the young republic, and the pride of Thomas Jefferson because they made his dream of a nation between two oceans come true.Lewis and two great but very different men. Plain-spoken William Clark, enjoys the triumphs and acclaim of the expedition, marries his childhood sweetheart, and settles in St. Louis as superintendent of the nation's Indian affairs. His black manservant, York, who accompanied the expedition, forces Clark to confront the very nature of slavery and question the society that condoned it.Meriwether Lewis, a man of fierce courage and brilliant intellect, returns from the Pacific a changed man. Something terrible has happened to him, something insidious, a disease with no name that erodes his health, threatens to destroy his mind--and his honor.In Eclipse, Richard S. Wheeler has written a tour de force novel, an exploration of triumph and tragedy told in the authentically rendered voices of the two greatest American explorers.Moreover, Wheeler provides a solution--dark in its ramifications--to one of the greatest mysteries in American the terrible and unexplained death of Meriwether Lewis, age thirty-five, in the wilderness of the Natchez Trace of Tennessee in October, 1809.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 31, 2002
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98 people want to read
About the author
Richard S. Wheeler
124 books66 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
There are other authors with this name. One writes Marine Corps history. Another, Civil War history. Another writes in the political sciences.
Richard S. (Shaw) Wheeler was born in Milwaukee in 1935 and grew up in nearby Wauwatosa.
There are other authors with this name. One writes Marine Corps history. Another, Civil War history. Another writes in the political sciences.
Richard S. (Shaw) Wheeler was born in Milwaukee in 1935 and grew up in nearby Wauwatosa.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 15, 2019
Meriwether Lewis' life after his epic voyage of Western discovery quickly dissolved into chaos and tragedy. Wheeler uses fiction to consider what caused Lewis to fall from hero to pariah in three years. While this is a tale filled with a great deal of pathos, the use of Lewis' fellow voyager William Clark makes the tale even more fascinating. Clark settles down and appears on the surface to adjust well upon his return. He also faces a dilemma: his slave York, who accompanied him on the trek west, wants his freedom. Since the two captains are first-person narrators, this novel allows us to see how their worlds had changed unalterably by the travels that made them heroes. A useful companion to any historical account of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
August 20, 2013
Fallibility. After reading from Richard Wheeler’s lengthy list of historical western novels, I’m thinking fallibility is a special interest of this award-winning author. And it’s a difficult subject in a field of fiction that traditionally wants to pay tribute to the men who opened the West. In this story of Lewis and Clark, however, we are given a portrayal of exceptional men, who are also only human.
Eclipse, published in 2002, tackles the story of the suicide of Meriwether Lewis, only a few short years after the triumphant return of his expedition to the Pacific with Will Clark. As Wheeler notes in a Postscript, his death had long been a mystery, some historians advancing evidence of foul play. As a close associate of Jefferson and the political camp opposed to Aaron Burr, he would have had his enemies...
Read my review at my blog.
Eclipse, published in 2002, tackles the story of the suicide of Meriwether Lewis, only a few short years after the triumphant return of his expedition to the Pacific with Will Clark. As Wheeler notes in a Postscript, his death had long been a mystery, some historians advancing evidence of foul play. As a close associate of Jefferson and the political camp opposed to Aaron Burr, he would have had his enemies...
Read my review at my blog.
September 11, 2019
Eclipse is a work of historical fiction about Lewis and Clark. I brought the book on our six-month Missouri River Corps of Rediscovery canoe trip, but didn’t crack it open right away because I’ve heard the Lewis and Clark story so many times that I wasn’t ready to go through it again. Then came the pleasant surprise, the story actually starts right at the end of their expedition to the Pacific Coast and back. I found it immediately entrancing, and read the entire book in a couple days. The book is written in first person narrative form, switching back and forth between Lewis and Clark. Like all historical fiction, I found myself debating the accuracy of the portrayal, but still considered it a great read.
February 12, 2025
One truly impressive writer! This book is a novel about Lewis and Clark, the explorers. It starts upon their return from 2 years in our then-unsettled west through Lewis' death. It takes place in the early 1800's.....life was really different back then but Mr. Wheeler brings it to life....including his two main characters who are both smart and capable though Mr. Lewis falls by the wayside due to serious illness. It shows you how people were treated medically, as well as how sometmes there was no treatment.....it includes the courtship of Mr. Clark's wife....it brings early St. Louis to reality...the beginning of a major city. Mr. Wheeler had written a number of historical novels prior to his death in 2019, and I look forward to reading more of him.
July 2, 2019
An very interesting take on this most famous of explorers, starting the novel on their return to civilisation and acclaim and the pitfalls and problems of what should have been triumph. Told in the voices of the two men in alternating chapters the author moves the story along the very different experiences they have and seeks to unpick the mystery of Lewis's death only a few a few short years later. He does this competently. He is an experienced author with a long list of novels to his credit in the western genre. His explanation and narrative are compelling enough though at times the repetition of material shows how thin the real information must be.
May 6, 2019
Fascinating account of Lewis & Clark, and after their return, including Lewis's deteriorating health which is suspected of being caused by syphilis.
October 15, 2016
This book started out sad, and got sadder throughout until the bitter end. Still, I kept reading it, because the author did such a superb job of portraying the personalities of both Lewis and Clark. Told from alternating first-person perspectives of both men, the gradual physical and mental collapse of Lewis was masterfully presented. If this theory of Lewis' final demise is correct--and there are good reasons to presume that it is--this is an incredibly tragic ending to the story of a man who was America's greatest explorer.
August 5, 2016
Eclipse is one of those curious novels that somehow manage to be simultaneously entertaining and dull. Richard Wheeler is clearly a skilled author; he's equipped with both a formidable vocabulary and the ability to employ a voice reminiscent of 18th century upper-class Virginians (although I'm not sure Clark's social background justifies it). However, his characters lack color and his moral arc lacks potency. Essentially, Eclipse falls short due to Wheeler's inability to stir up a palpable emotional response.
The anxiety and suspense that should lead up to are absent, as is the sense of loss after the fact. It's impossible not to compare it in this aspect with Brian Hall's eloquent I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company , also written about Lewis and Clark. Hall's depiction is infinitely more evocative; it's genuinely upsetting in its emotional richness. Although both Wheeler and Hall use a third person point of view, Hall's style (and perhaps his finesse) allow him to communicate his characters' points of view much more thoroughly. For instance, compare the climax of Eclipse with Brian Hall’s final chapters; the difference is stark. Hall renders brilliantly; the hopelessness, the loneliness, the bitterness, Lewis’ sense of loss at Clark’s marriage-- the emotions that brought Lewis to are upsettingly clear to the reader. Contrarily, Wheeler’s book fails to create such a poignant end: he does not endow his characters with the same emotional complexity and depth.
When everyone already knows the ending (and, I should add, roughly the entire story) it's a puzzling strategy to devote so much time to developing plot rather than character. Although the author's interpretations of the characters and their relationships comprise the aspect of historical fiction that most strongly demands an imaginative vision, Wheeler fails to emphasize this element of his narrative.
It's not that Wheeler doesn't leave definite or consistent impressions of his characters-- Julia Hancock, William Clark, John Pernia, and Doctor Saugrain all come to mind as very well sketched-- it's that he neglects to explore them more deeply, even through the obvious paths of their relationships to one another. Clark and Hancock's mostly happy marriage, Lewis and Saugrain's friendship, Hancock's disdain for Lewis, and Pernia's serving of Lewis are all steady, suitably written dynamics, but Wheeler chooses not to examine their complexities, instead driving on forward with the plot. And the novel notably falls short in depicting the most obvious relationship worth exploring: Lewis and Clark. It’s clear that they are friends, although Wheeler doesn’t make theirs a very interesting or dynamic friendship.
In other areas, such as the relationship between York and Clark, Wheeler is plainly out of his depth. As there are varied accounts of York's real fate, it's unclear whether Clark actually freed York. Wheeler decides to have his Clark free York, which is a surprising choice as it sets up an uneven moral arc-- it's impossible to believe that freeing York has improved Clark from a moral standpoint since afterwards he continues to hold slaves. And Wheeler never addresses this conflict. Rather than just painting a less rosy picture, he chooses to set up a misleading and lopsided-- not to mention sloppy-- moral arc. Due to Wheeler's knack of narrating his character's emotions as opposed to expressing them, Clark's actions appear doubly far-fetched within the novel. On a related note, as York's arc ends too suddenly to feel legitimately resolved, Eclipse is left feeling rather incomplete as a whole.
On one hand, Wheeler’s research is definitely evident throughout-- he brilliantly reconstructs the majority of post-expedition events-- on the other, he lacks the emotional factor crucial to making this type of historical fiction engaging to a reader already familiar with the material. It's not a terrible read, just not a great one.
The anxiety and suspense that should lead up to are absent, as is the sense of loss after the fact. It's impossible not to compare it in this aspect with Brian Hall's eloquent I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company , also written about Lewis and Clark. Hall's depiction is infinitely more evocative; it's genuinely upsetting in its emotional richness. Although both Wheeler and Hall use a third person point of view, Hall's style (and perhaps his finesse) allow him to communicate his characters' points of view much more thoroughly. For instance, compare the climax of Eclipse with Brian Hall’s final chapters; the difference is stark. Hall renders brilliantly; the hopelessness, the loneliness, the bitterness, Lewis’ sense of loss at Clark’s marriage-- the emotions that brought Lewis to are upsettingly clear to the reader. Contrarily, Wheeler’s book fails to create such a poignant end: he does not endow his characters with the same emotional complexity and depth.
When everyone already knows the ending (and, I should add, roughly the entire story) it's a puzzling strategy to devote so much time to developing plot rather than character. Although the author's interpretations of the characters and their relationships comprise the aspect of historical fiction that most strongly demands an imaginative vision, Wheeler fails to emphasize this element of his narrative.
It's not that Wheeler doesn't leave definite or consistent impressions of his characters-- Julia Hancock, William Clark, John Pernia, and Doctor Saugrain all come to mind as very well sketched-- it's that he neglects to explore them more deeply, even through the obvious paths of their relationships to one another. Clark and Hancock's mostly happy marriage, Lewis and Saugrain's friendship, Hancock's disdain for Lewis, and Pernia's serving of Lewis are all steady, suitably written dynamics, but Wheeler chooses not to examine their complexities, instead driving on forward with the plot. And the novel notably falls short in depicting the most obvious relationship worth exploring: Lewis and Clark. It’s clear that they are friends, although Wheeler doesn’t make theirs a very interesting or dynamic friendship.
In other areas, such as the relationship between York and Clark, Wheeler is plainly out of his depth. As there are varied accounts of York's real fate, it's unclear whether Clark actually freed York. Wheeler decides to have his Clark free York, which is a surprising choice as it sets up an uneven moral arc-- it's impossible to believe that freeing York has improved Clark from a moral standpoint since afterwards he continues to hold slaves. And Wheeler never addresses this conflict. Rather than just painting a less rosy picture, he chooses to set up a misleading and lopsided-- not to mention sloppy-- moral arc. Due to Wheeler's knack of narrating his character's emotions as opposed to expressing them, Clark's actions appear doubly far-fetched within the novel. On a related note, as York's arc ends too suddenly to feel legitimately resolved, Eclipse is left feeling rather incomplete as a whole.
On one hand, Wheeler’s research is definitely evident throughout-- he brilliantly reconstructs the majority of post-expedition events-- on the other, he lacks the emotional factor crucial to making this type of historical fiction engaging to a reader already familiar with the material. It's not a terrible read, just not a great one.
February 1, 2019
It wasn't what I expected. This takes place after they return from the great expedition. Seams to drag in some places and skip over some stories that might have been interesting.
April 30, 2010
This is a novel about Lewis and Clark once they got back from their journey. This novel holds the theory that Lewis contacted syphillis from a Shoshone on the journey. This theory holds that he was in the third stage and shot himself on a trip to see President Madison to settle his financial affairs.
April 16, 2008
I hadn't known till this book that there was a "mystery" surrounding Lewis's death. A few portions dragged, but on the whole it kept my attention. Watching Lewis's deterioration was pretty heart-wrenching at times, especially when contrasted with Clark's happiness.
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April 15, 2010The story rings true about the way the government wasn't forthcoming in paying it's obligations to Lewis and Clark and their men.
Will Clark and Merriweather Lewis both were forever changed by their grand adventure and Lewis in particular paid a heavy price.
Will Clark and Merriweather Lewis both were forever changed by their grand adventure and Lewis in particular paid a heavy price.
October 1, 2010
Typical Richard S. Wheeler book this explores the death of Meriweather Clark and what may have happened to him.
October 7, 2014
Not a light read. Full of SAT vocabulary words. Very good book. Mr. Wheeler puts you back in time and you see first hand the life in the times of the Louisiana Purchase.
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May 20, 2008813.54 Whe
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews