- Published: 04/04/2013
- ISBN: 9781847087690
- Granta Books
- 352 pages
Dead Certainties
Simon Schama
On 13 September 1759, General James Wolfe, having led the British troops up the St Lawrence to victory in the Battle of Quebec, died on the Heights of Abraham. Schama examines this death, and how Wolfe was made to die again – through the spectacular painting by Benjamin West, and through the writings of the 19th-century historian Francis Parkman. Schama’s second death concerns Parkman’s uncle, George Parkman of Harvard Medical College, who disappeared in 1849 in mysterious circumstances and who was rumoured to have been murdered by a colleague. Through these incidents, Schama sheds light on the writing of history, the history of history, and the relationship of ‘story’ to ‘history’.
£16.99
In [Schama's] hands the past loses its remoteness and takes on the noise and clutter of experience - a transformation performed by a magician confident enough to remind us before, during and after the performance that it is all an illusion
Andrew Delbanco, New Republic
Unusually for a history book this is a rattling good read. If the past is a foreign country, Schama is a terrific time-traveller
Roy Porter, New Statesman
An infinitely beguiling book, a mind-teasing delight
New York Times
Simon Schama on Granta.com
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Death of a Harvard Man
Simon Schama
‘The lettuce sat in its brown bag, wilting in the unseasonable warmth.’
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
The Many Deaths of General Wolfe
Simon Schama
‘But what good had this done except to assuage the endless sense of impotence and rage that swelled inside him as spring turned into a scorching, dripping, foul-smelling summer?’