Wau-nan-gee Or, the Massacre at Chicago: A Romance of the American Revolution

Richardson, Major (John), 1796-1852Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
403K words
Chapters
41

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Historical ReappraisalLegendary LivesAdventure JourneyFate and FortuneHeroic LegendHeroismRomanticismWar NarrativeAmerican FrontierSpecies Conflict

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Wau-nan-gee; Or, the Massacre at Chicago: A Romance of the American RevolutionAuthor: Richardson, Major (John), 1796-1852,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 23, 2010

Editor's review

This novel by Major John Richardson is set against the American Revolution and spins a romanticized narrative around the conflicts in the Chicago area and the so-called "massacre." Its value lies in showing how early North American English fiction turned historical events into legend: real place names, the shadow of war, and the emotions of fictional characters are intertwined, reflecting the imagination of the era while also exposing the narrator's stance. Readers can use it to observe how nineteenth-century writers handled relations between Native peoples and colonists, wartime violence, and romantic plotlines. The language bears the marks of its time, and the plot relies on coincidence and dramatic scenes, making it suitable as supplementary material for the study of North American literary history and historical fiction. When reading, one should distinguish literary embellishment from historical fact, note the narrator's value judgments, and compare them with later historical writing on related subjects.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Before reading, familiarize yourself with the basic timeline of the American Revolution and the early settlement of Chicago.
  2. As you read, mark the narrator's terms for different groups and observe where the narrative's sympathies lie.
  3. Keep a separate record of the novel's plot and verifiable historical facts so as not to conflate them.
  4. Compare it with similar frontier romances to discuss the common tropes of romanticized narrative.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41

FAQ

Is the "massacre" in the novel historical fact? The novel draws on historical events but romanticizes and dramatizes them, so it cannot be taken directly as fact. Readers should treat it as literary narrative; to understand the event itself, consult professional historical research and note the differing stances of various sources.
Does the identity of the author, Richardson, affect how one reads the book? The author's military background shapes how he depicts war, order, and relations between groups. Noting the military perspective and value judgments in the narrative helps in understanding how the text shapes images of heroes, enemies, and victims.
Is this book suitable for classroom use? It can serve as supplementary material for the study of literary history or historical narrative, but teachers must guide students in distinguishing literary embellishment from historical fact. It is best paired with reliable historical sources and texts offering diverse perspectives, so that students can discuss narrative stance and the limitations of the era.

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About the author

Richardson, Major (John), 1796-1852 Author

Major John Richardson (1796–1852) was a writer of historical fiction set in colonial North America, with ten works included in the collection. Publicly available information is limited, so details of his life cannot be given at length; his subjects, however, show that he excelled at combining real historical events with romantic storytelling. His representative work Wacousta is set against the Pontiac conspiracy and turns on frontier conflict, while The Canadian Brothers draws on the more recent American war. Wau-nan-gee revisits the massacre at Chicago during the American Revolution. These works focus on war, the frontier, and relations between peoples, with dramatic plots and a strong romantic colouring. They hold a place in early Canadian writing in English and have influenced later historical fiction.