Sparrowhawk, Book Three: Caxton

Sparrowhawk #3

by Edward Cline

It is fall 1759. The saga of Jack Frake and Hugh Kenrick moves to Caxton, a small trading town on the York River in Virginia, some miles up the wide river from Yorktown. Jack Frake, after having served his eight-year indenture, is a successful tobacco planter, having inherited his property from his former master, with whom he formed a close father-son relationship. He married the master's daughter, but she and her son died in childbirth. His close friend on the plantation is John Proudlocks, an Indian whom he taught to read. Other planters' properties lay on the outskirts of Caxton, including Reese Vishonn's, the largest planter.

Hugh Kenrick arrives in Caxton on the Sparrowhawk on the very day news arrives of General Wolfe's victory over Montcalm in Quebec. He has spent several years in Philadelphia, attending an academy and learning the trade and business in the shop of Otis Talbot, a merchant he met years before in England. After touring a bankrupt plantation, Brougham Hall, with Talbot, he decides to purchase it--and its slaves. He is invited to a victory ball at Reece Vishonn's great house at his plantation, Enderly. There he meets Étaín McRae, the daughter of a Scottish trader, and Jack Frake. As gossip and rumors fly around Caxton about Hugh Kenrick's status and his intentions, Hugh decides on a name for his new Meum Hall--My Hall. Hugh is invited to call on Francis Fauquier, Esquire, lieutenant governor of Virginia, in Williamsburg. In the governor's mansion, the lieutenant governor and Hugh have a frank exchange of views on the war, on North America, on the Indians, and on Britain's mercantilist hold on the colonies.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Literature, Epic, American

Audible Audio

First published November 5, 2002

About the author

Edward Cline is an American novelist and essayist. He is best known for his Sparrowhawk series of novels, which take place in England and Virginia before the American Revolutionary War. He is also the author of First Prize and Whisper the Guns. Outside of his work as a novelist, Cline is known for his writings on esthetics and his defense of capitalism and of free speech. As a writer, his strongest influence has been the philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand. Currently, he is a policy analyst for the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism. He lives in Yorktown, Virginia.





from wikipedia.com

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love this series! In a sense, this book was not filled with much action, but I found the storyline fascinating.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illuminating

For myself, who had a life of laboring servitude, the novel explanation of actual history and its inevitable consequences was educational and entertaining all at once. Some of the best writing of historical fiction I have ever found. Kudos!

[Susan Loftus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pompous and overwritten

An adventure written by an academic in search of an editor The author is a lecturer capable of reducing the glorious to the mundane mercantilism and pomposity of a pre-revolutionary society. Makes one root for the mad king.

[Deb White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hugh Kendrick is now in Virginia around 1759. He owns a plantation and grows tobacco.
His neighbor, Jack Frake, is of the same mindset as Hugh. They are growing more independent of England's rule over the colonies.

[Sunday Hollis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story, history that I was not familiar with, and much less pontificating than the last book

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series but I felt like Melanie Griffin’s character in Born Yesterday, making numerous trips to the dictionary to check on unknown words.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only complaint I can have for this book was that it seemed too short. Transitional novels in a series seem to give many authors some difficulty, this is not the case with Ed Cline. 'Caxton' is a complete story, but it accomplishes the dual tasks of joining together the heroes of the first two books and building a foundation for what is to come.

Book one introduced Jack Frake and Book two introduced Hugh Kenrick. Book three brings them together in the small Virginia town of Caxton and gives us a look into late colonial America. There are returns of several of the characters from the earlier stories, but their importance is conveyed without having to read the earlier books; although the added richness to their histories brings even greater depth.

The book gets really interesting towards the end when we more clearly see the differences between Frake and Kenrick. Kenrick worships reason and believes it will prevail in the contest between Empire and the Colonies, Frake sees the reality of two distinct paths forward. While we may know how that part of the story ends, it is the journey ahead and not the destination that holds the mystery and adventure.

[Jeffrey Falk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is historical fiction, but it is both topical and timeless. It is romanticism in an age of naturalism and nihilism. It is topical because the historical parallels and contrasts between this novel's background, the Eighteenth century Enlightenment, and our Twenty-first century Endarkenment, are acute and urgent, and it is timeless because it dramatizes the most glorious aspects and potentialities (and, in some cases, even actualities) of this Earth and the human mind and spirit. My only significant criticisms are that this volume, unlike the series's previous two installments, functions more like an expositive interlude than a stand-alone novel, and there are an egregious number of typographical errors (though I am glad the author has retained his copyrights from the original publisher).

[Bob Hinnant · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is very good and the series very informative. It teaches a side of the American Revolution not generally taught. The only reason I give these books 3 stars versus 4 or 5 is that the author seems enamored with his vocabulary, tries too hard to use the vernacular of the period or both. I appreciate his efforts but it can detract from the story. I was glad to be reading the series with a Kindle so as to have the instant dictionary immediately available. In some cases, there were words used that Kindle couldn't define. I am considered to have a more than serviceable vocabulary myself but found myself challenged. On one hand it is good to expand your knowledge of our language but not to the point of detracting from the flow of the story itself.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

good history, but, like Victor Hugo, too much of it compared to the story.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

tedious.