Story summary
Краткое содержание: Старый Доминион
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 7 parts
- Аудио скоро
On a Virginia wharf, a planter's daughter waits for lace as a convict steps off a nearby sloop.
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Старый Доминион — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 6 h 45 min5 h 20 min fast, 8 h slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 96 400
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Средний longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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Старый Доминион in short
The Old Dominion follows Godfrey Landless, a convict who arrives in chains at a tobacco plantation and sees a lady in lace on the porch. After the murder of the net mender, he becomes the secret leader of a plot by servants and slaves. At the same time he is drawn into the life of the girl he is supposed to fear.
What Старый Доминион is about
Would you wait for a ship in a swamp, dressed for a court three thousand miles away? In the summer of 1663, Patricia Verney stands on a Virginia porch with a silk fan in her hand. A white sloop tacks up a marshy creek, with crates of satin and romances, and three convicts from Newgate prison bought by her father to work his tobacco.
The Old Dominion is a novel by the American writer Mary Johnston, published in 1899 and set in the Virginia of Governor Sir William Berkeley. It joins a love story to a tale of conspiracy, and it gives planters, servants, slaves and prisoners each a voice and a motive. You get the whole sweep, from the first landing to the final journey into the wilderness.
Для кого. Readers who love sweeping historical romance and plantation life in early America will enjoy sword fights, sieges, forest journeys and a proud heroine who changes through danger.
The story in 7 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A sloop brings lace and convicts ashore
The story opens on the porch at Verney Manor, a plantation beside the Chesapeake. Patricia, the colonel's daughter, is thrilled by the crates that hold a satin gown, blue silk stockings and the latest romances. Her cousin, Sir Charles Carew, lounges on the steps and teases her. Aunt Lettice fears every omen, from a screech owl to a spilled salt cellar.
Sir Charles has come from the court of Charles the Second, deep in debt to gamblers. He studies the estate with a gambler's eye. Patricia is rich and beautiful, so he decides to win her. Then Colonel Verney steps ashore, jovial and round, with six enslaved Africans and three convicts. He calls the convicts a poor policy and says he expects to regret them.
Sir Charles tells Patricia of one prisoner in the hold, a man of about thirty who kept his rags decent and never begged. Now that prisoner climbs the wharf steps. His name is Godfrey Landless. The colonel boasts of fish, deer and endless land, declaring the lowlands safe from Indians but admitting his fear of the servants.
Patricia appears in her new blue and silver gown, glowing with pleasure. She sees Landless at the foot of the steps, staring up at her like a man looking from a desert into a garden. Her fan falls and breaks. She begs her father to make him go, feeling a fear she cannot explain.
The opening shows silk on the porch and chains on the steps, and the whole novel grows from the gap between them.
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A madwoman, a fanatic and a net mender
Patricia's friend Betty Carrington, a gentle Puritan girl, pities servants, convicts and Indians alike.
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Pride, a blow and a conspirator's oath
A council of rebels meets in the hut while Landless looks on.
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A storm throws master and servant together
With the date set for September the thirteenth, Landless slips out at night to find Major Carrington at Rosemead.
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Bondage and freedom drive every side
The central theme is freedom, and Johnston shows how it is bought and sold.
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Honor and class divide a lover from his lady
The second theme is honor, and who is allowed to have it.
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Omens, songs and vivid scenery shape the telling
Johnston tells the story in the third person, with sweeping description.
Read all 7 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Godfrey Landless A convict and former Commonwealth soldier who claims he is innocent, and who wants freedom and the chance to prove his honor.
- Patricia Verney The proud, beautiful daughter of a planter, who loves fashion and the Cavalier world and slowly learns to look past rank.
- Sir Charles Carew A witty, ruthless courtier from King Charles's court who wants Patricia's hand and her father's fortune.
- Colonel Richard Verney A jovial, loyal planter and councilor who loves his daughter and his land and fears a rising of servants.
- Robert Godwyn A gentle, lame net mender and old Commonwealth man who dreams of a Virginia republic and plans an uprising.
- Win-Grace Porringer A branded Muggletonian fanatic who curses everyone and helps the conspirators with fierce zeal.
- Luiz Sebastian A smooth mulatto slave who plots his own revenge and wants far more than the rebels offer.
- Monakatocka A Susquehannock captive and chief who owes Landless a debt and wants to return to his people.
How it ends (spoiler)
Landless and Patricia survive the forest and each other's company, and she is rescued by her father and Sir Charles. Landless cannot go back, for the Governor has sworn to hang him as the plot's leader. Colonel Verney thanks him sincerely but says he cannot save him from punishment. He chooses to remain in the wilderness, wounded and alone. Patricia vows to stay true to him as the canoes carry her home.
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Вопросы о книге Старый Доминион
What is The Old Dominion about?
It follows Godfrey Landless, a convict sent to a Virginia plantation in 1663. He becomes the leader of a secret uprising of servants and slaves, and a storm, a siege and a wilderness chase bind his fate to the planter's daughter.
Who is Godfrey Landless?
He is a young man of good birth who fought for Cromwell's Commonwealth at Worcester and was sent to the plantations as a convict. He claims he is innocent of the crime charged against him.
Who are the Ricahecrians in the book?
They are a fierce mountain tribe from the Blue Mountains who visit a Chickahominy village. Their chief wants a captive kinsman returned, and the refusal feeds the violence that follows.
Is The Old Dominion a true story?
It is fiction, but it uses a real setting. Sir William Berkeley governed Virginia in the 1660s, and the laws on servants, the trainbands and the planter lifestyle are drawn from the period.
Is The Old Dominion easy to read?
It moves with scenes of storms, duels, sieges and chases, and its characters speak in vivid, colorful ways. The story builds in short chapters, so each scene has a clear purpose.
Как сослаться на это издание
Johnston, Mary. The Old Dominion. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-old-dominion.
Johnston, M. (2026). The Old Dominion. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-old-dominion
Johnston, Mary. The Old Dominion. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-old-dominion.
@book{johnston2026old,
author = {Johnston, Mary},
title = {The Old Dominion},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-old-dominion}
}
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