Nashborough

by ElsieBurchDonald (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.45

  A turbulent saga and rich read, set in the exotic world of the American Deep South in the first half of this century. For generations, the Nashes and Douglases have reigned over Nashborough, a town in the American South. United by the marriage of the only Douglas son to the beautiful and courageous, but thoroughly undomesticated Dartania Nash, the families become caught up in the dramatic events of the 20th century - the Depression, World War II, the glory days of Hollywood and the rise of the civil rights movement. And as the older generation, its values and outlooks, slowly disappear, its successors, caught in the surge for independence sweeping across America, experience the result - an atrophy of traditional family life, and accompanying loss of roots.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $4.45

  The Nash and Douglas families, discreetly intermarried, were the arbiters of society in Nashborough. They lived in town houses and plantation mansions. They had cotton crops, they owned banks and they ran the local politics. They had recovered themselves from the disasters and poverty of the Civil War the previous century, and when the novel opens at the marriage of the youngest Douglas daughter, it looks as if this world would never end. But financial, political and social events intervened. Even the South did not remain immune from the effects of the banking collapse of the 1920s, and certainly not from the growth of racial tensions. Some of the family ran away to Chicago or Paris; some married outside the golden circle - to a penniless anarchist, and to an Englishwoman. One, the splendid Dartania, even had an affair with the Prince of Wales. But the changes also affected the whole tradition of family. Miss Alice might still hold the party of the year, but many of her descendants had started to reinvent themselves - becoming senators, artists and even a film star. The women no longer organised social events but worked, and one Douglas was even to become the most eminent black preacher in the South. Full of great characters woven in with real people, and rich in the atmosphere of the houses, the society and a way of life, Nashborough is a truly compelling saga. It is a fascinating take on that frequently studied subject: the family.