New York_ The Novel - Edward Rutherfurd [0]
Sarum
Russka
London
The Forest
Dublin
Ireland Awakening
This book is dedicated, with a lifetime of thanks,
to Eleanor Janet Wintle
Contents
Maps
Preface
New Amsterdam: 1664
New York
The Boston Girl: 1735
The Philadelphia Girl: 1741
Montayne’s Tavern: 1758
London: 1759
Abigail: 1765
The Loyalist: 1770
The Patriot
Vanessa
War: March 1776
Fire: 1776
Love: July 1777
The Capital: 1790
Niagara: 1825
Past Five Points: 1849
Crystal Palace: 1853
Lincoln: 1860
The Draft: 1863
Moonlight Sonata: 1871
Snow: 1888
Old England: 1896
Ellis Island: 1901
Empire State: 1917
Brooklyn: 1953
Verrazano Narrows: 1968
After Dark: 1977
Giving Birth: 1987
Millennium
The Board Game: September 8, 2001
The Towers: September 10, 2001
Epilogue: Summer 2009
Acknowledgments
Maps
Preface
NEW YORK IS, first and foremost, a novel. All the families whose fortunes the story follows are fictional, as are their parts in the historical events described. But in following the stories of these imaginary families down the centuries, I have tried to set them among people and events that either did exist, or might have done.
The names of the principal families in this book have been chosen to represent the traditions from which they come. Van Dyck is a common and easily remembered Dutch name. Master is a fairly common English name, though I confess that while considering the family’s destiny as merchants and Wall Street men, the phrase “Master of the Universe” sprang naturally into my mind. White is another typical English name. Keller is the fiftieth most popular German name, meaning a “Cellar Man.” O’Donnell is a well-known Irish name, Caruso a famous Southern Italian name, and Adler, meaning “Eagle” in German, is found all over Middle Europe. In the case of characters who make brief appearances, the Rivers family are invented; the family of Albion appeared in my book The Forest. My choice of the name Juan Campos was inspired by the famous Puerto Rican composer Juan Morel Campos. The name Humblay does not, so far as I am aware, exist, but is an old spelling of “humbly” to be found in sixteenth-century prayer books. For the origins of the names Vorpal and Bandersnatch, readers are directed to Lewis Carroll’s poem: Jabberwocky.
It has been necessary to invent very little in terms of historical event during the course of this narrative. Here and there, to maintain the narrative flow, there are a few simplifications of complex historical sequence or detail, but none, I believe, that misrepresent the general historical record. A few words, however, are needed as to historical interpretation.
American Indian tribes. While I have made reference to certain local tribes, such as the Tappan and the Hackensack, whose names are still to be found in local topography, the New York region contained such a multiplicity of tribal groups that I have not wished to confuse the reader by using too many. Instead, I have often followed the common practice of referring to these tribes by the name of their shared language group, which was Algonquin. Similarly, the tribes to the north are often called Iroquois—which was their language—although where appropriate, individual tribes like the Mohawks are so named. Readers may be surprised that in the early part of the story I have not used the name of Lenape to denote the native people of the Manhattan region. But in fact, this name was only applied to these groups at a later historical period, and so I have preferred not to make use of it when it would have signified nothing to the people described.
Some recent histories, in particular The Island at the Center of the World, Russell Shorto’s admirable book on New Amsterdam, stress the tradition of personal and civic freedom bequeathed to New York by the Dutch. I have tried to incorporate this work into my story, with the slight proviso that civic independence had a history dating back into the Middle Ages in England and much of Europe, as well.
My view in my original draft, that the