Product Description

"Michener's most ambitious work of fiction in theme and scope."
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
"Brilliantly written."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Once again James A. Michener brings history to life with this 400-year saga of America's great bay and its Eastern Shore. Following Edmund Steed and his remarkable family, who parallel the settling and forming of the nation, CHESAPEAKE sweeps readers from the unspoiled world of the Native Americans to the voyages of Captain John Smith, the Revolutionary War, and right up to modern times.


From the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11414 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-09
• Released on: 2003-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 888 pages

From the Inside Flap
"Michener's most ambitious work of fiction in theme and scope."
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
"Brilliantly written."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Once again James A. Michener brings history to life with this 400-year saga of America's great bay and its Eastern Shore. Following Edmund Steed and his remarkable family, who parallel the settling and forming of the nation, CHESAPEAKE sweeps readers from the unspoiled world of the Native Americans to the voyages of Captain John Smith, the Revolutionary War, and right up to modern times.


From the Paperback edition.

About the Author
George Grizzard's distinguished career includes Broadway performances in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and California Suite. His film work includes Advise and Consent and Comes a Horseman. His many television appearances include his portrayal of John Adams in PBS's The Adams Chronicles and The Oldest Living Graduate, for which he won an Emmy Award.

Customer Reviews

"Chesapeake" by James Michener
I've read a number of novels by James Michener, and this is the first one that grabbed me totally on the very first page. I was completely gripped and can't wait for enough time to pass so I can read it again. I've also loved these other books by him, but each one took me a different number of pages to really get hooked, but hooked indeed I did get: "The Source": 90+ pages (read twice, took 90 pages both times); "Centennial" 100+ pages; "Hawaii" about 200 pages and 2 attempts but became one of my all time favorites in the end (it's a must read again for sure); Haven't gotten gripped enough on "Space' yet, and tried twice; "Alaska" was a very hard book to get into, but have achieved nearly 900 pages with few regrets. But I do look forward to a second time around with "Chesapeake".

Can we learn from history?
A phenomenal masterpiece; Michener takes the reader to multiple continents through many centuries following people and animals in the history of the Chesapeake region. Some fine reviews above describe many of the topics in the book, but the chapters on slavery were most moving and eye-opening. Michener decribes the horror of the Africans being betrayed and captured in their villages, the brutal transportation to the west coast of Africa and finally to the Americas. Especially disturbing are the Biblical quotes (cited in the book) that protestant ministers and Catholic bishops used in the pulpit to "justify" slavery. There were a favorite dozen or so passages, referring to the treatment of slaves in the old testament that these men of the cloth grabbed to "prove" that God sanctioned slavery. But then that was some two centuries ago. Certainly the Bible wouldn't be perverted to preach hatred against a minority today.

A first time read of a Michener Novel
This is the first book I read by Michener; I couldn't put it down, and I didn't--read the whole book cover to cover straight through. This is the book that instilled my interest in James Michener's Books.