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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Period violence in the colonial Maryland setting; frontier brutality and historical conflicts
Language
Some
Adult language in Barth's comic historical register; period bawdiness throughout
Sexual Content
A lot
Explicit bawdy sexual content throughout in the 18th-century picaresque tradition
Substance Use
Some
Drinking in the colonial period setting
Emotional Intensity
Some
The philosophical dimension — Barth's interrogation of historical fiction's conventions and the nature of identity — gives the comedy its intellectual weight
What this book is about
John Barth's massive postmodern comic novel follows Ebenezer Cooke, a naive English poet who sails to 17th-century Maryland as Poet Laureate. The novel is a sprawling parody of historical fiction and 18th-century novels; it is bawdy, philosophically intricate, and deliberately excessive. Barth writes with extraordinary wit but also with explicit period sexuality and violence that are integral to the satire. For adult readers of experimental literary fiction.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
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