The Last Crossing (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Guy Vanderhaeghe
- First Published: 2004
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1871 and 1896
- Setting: London and Oxford, England; Montana Territory; and Canada
- Principal Characters: Charles Gaunt, Simon Gaunt, Captain Addington Gaunt, Henry Gaunt, Jerry Potts, Custis Straw, Lucy Stoveall, Madge Dray, Aloysius Dooley, Caleb Ayto, Titus, Reverend Obadiah Witherspoon, Mary
- Genres: Long fiction, Western fiction
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Colonialism, Nineteenth century, West, U.S., Native Americans or American Indians, Brothers, England or English people, Canada or Canadians, Toleration
- Locales: Canada, London, England, Oxford, England, Montana Territory
Guy Vanderhaeghe's fourth novel, The Last Crossing, succeeds as a historical entertainment, as a romance, and as an examination of the North American soul. Vanderhaeghe takes thematic and narrative elements from his very similar The Englishman's Boy (1996) and expands them to epic scale.
The Last Crossing begins in 1896, with Charles Gaunt, a minor painter, suddenly receiving unexpected acclaim for a collection of love poems. After Charles receives a newspaper clipping about the death of the legendary half-Indian frontiersman, Jerry Potts, he begins...
[The entire page is 1932 words long]
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