Cold Mountain | Characters

Set in the waning months of the American Civil War, this deeply affecting historical novel betrays only minimal interest in that war's celebrated commanders. In fact, its main use of such figures is to characterize its protagonist by rejecting, as he does, their views of war and death. In the first chapter, Inman, the wounded protagonist, remembers fighting at Maryes Heights in Fredericksburg, where generals Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet "spent the afternoon up on the hill coining fine phrases like a pair of wags" while under their detached gazes men died in one of the most...

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