In this Book
- The Dogs of March
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: University Press of New England
summary
“His life had come to this: save a few deer from the jaws of dogs. He was a small man sent to perform a small task.”
Howard Elman is a man whose internal landscape is as disordered as his front yard, where native New Hampshire birches and maples mingle with a bullet-riddled washer, abandoned bathroom fixtures, and several junk cars. Howard, anti-hero of this first novel in Ernest Hebert’s highly acclaimed Darby Chronicles, is a man who is tough and tender.
Howard’s battle against encroaching change symbolizes the class conflict between indigenous Granite Staters scratching out a living and citified immigrants with “college degrees and big bank accounts.” Like the winter-weakened deer threatened by the dogs of March—the normally docile house pets whose instincts arouse them to chase and kill for sport—Howard, too, is sorely beset.
The seven novels of Hebert’s Darby Chronicles cover 35 years in the life of a small New England town as seen through the eyes of three families—the Elmans, the Salmons, and the Jordans—each representing a distinct social class. It all starts with The Dogs of March, cited for excellence in 1980 by the Hemingway Foundation (now the Pen Faulkner Award for Fiction).
Howard Elman is a man whose internal landscape is as disordered as his front yard, where native New Hampshire birches and maples mingle with a bullet-riddled washer, abandoned bathroom fixtures, and several junk cars. Howard, anti-hero of this first novel in Ernest Hebert’s highly acclaimed Darby Chronicles, is a man who is tough and tender.
Howard’s battle against encroaching change symbolizes the class conflict between indigenous Granite Staters scratching out a living and citified immigrants with “college degrees and big bank accounts.” Like the winter-weakened deer threatened by the dogs of March—the normally docile house pets whose instincts arouse them to chase and kill for sport—Howard, too, is sorely beset.
The seven novels of Hebert’s Darby Chronicles cover 35 years in the life of a small New England town as seen through the eyes of three families—the Elmans, the Salmons, and the Jordans—each representing a distinct social class. It all starts with The Dogs of March, cited for excellence in 1980 by the Hemingway Foundation (now the Pen Faulkner Award for Fiction).
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- 1 Work-for-Pay
- pp. 1-16
- 2 The .308
- pp. 17-31
- 3 The Gift
- pp. 32-42
- 4 The Creature
- pp. 43-55
- 5 The Employment Office
- pp. 56-67
- 6 The Hunchback's Pantomime
- pp. 68-83
- 7 The Offer
- pp. 84-96
- 8 New Year's Eve
- pp. 97-117
- 9 Cabin Fever
- pp. 118-131
- 10 Sunday Morning
- pp. 132-142
- 11 A Bundle of Laundry
- pp. 143-158
- 12 The Filbin Rites
- pp. 159-169
- 13 Town Meeting
- pp. 170-195
- 15 Road Meat
- pp. 208-224
- 16 The Dogs of March
- pp. 225-245
- 17 The Trailer
- pp. 246-255
Additional Information
ISBN
9781611687095
Related ISBN(s)
9781611687071
MARC Record
OCLC
889942244
Pages
272
Launched on MUSE
2015-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No