Dead Certainties Unwarranted Speculations

Like hisThe Embarrassment of Richesand the bestsellingCitizens, Simon Schama's latest book is both history and literature of immense stylishness and ambition. ButDead Certaintiesgoes beyond these more conventional histories to address the deeper enigmas that confront a student of the past. In order to do so, Schama reconstructs -- and at times reinvents -- two ambiguous deaths: the first, that of General James Wolfe at the battle of Quebec in 1759; the second, in 1849, that of George Parkman, an eccentric Boston brahmin whose murder by an impecunious Harvard professor in 1849 was a grisly reproach to the moral sanctity of his society. Out of these stories -- with all of their bizarre coincidences and contradictions -- Schama creates a dazzling and supremely vital work of historical imagination.

Simon Schama is the prize-winning author of seven acclaimed books. An art critic and essayist <br>for <i>The New Yorker</i>, he also writes and presents documentaries for BBC television. He is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University and lives outside New York City.