THE CITY IN THE DAWN

by Harvey Allen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 1950

An extraordinarily successful and novel venture in editing this, and for the many who have read one or two but not the whole of the Allen series, the coordinating of the parts into one while, with a final chapter written before Harvey Allen's untimely death, will be an answer to a sense of incompleteness. People who have read none of the books will find it -- in this new giant edition -- an enriching experience in a frontier novel out of America's past. Allen has reversed the usual process in telling the story of a lad, part Irish, part Indian, who bucks the tide of westward passage in the mid 18th century to come from the forest which gave him birth to the city of his dreams. The F and the (still my favorite of the three completed books) is left almost intact; Village which carries his adventures one part of the way towards civilization, has an enormous amount of new material to offer the student; Toward the Morning, set for the most part in the region around Carlisle, has been skilfully pruned of much of the extraneous matter that weighed it down. And the final new section picks up some of the dropped threads and brings them together in the picture of the triumphant arrival of alathiel, Malissa, Bridget- under the escort of Yates -- in bustling Philadelphia, ""the city in the dawn"". Better than just a trick of merchandising, which many of us had feared it would be, this is a brilliant piece of editing, and has good possibilities.

Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1950

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Rinehart

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1950

Categories: FICTION