New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. dj. Hardcover first edition - A book which can be read on multiple levels. First, as two intriguing stories - one about the triumph and death of James Wolfe at Quebec in 1759, the second an exploration of the murder of the Boston Brahmin George Parkman in 1849. But then Schama explores more deeply into these stories: so "British general James Wolfe, killed in the battle for Quebec in 1759, emerges as a neurotic monomaniac thirsty for glory. We see his death through the eyes of a soldier who took part in the battle; through American painter, Benjamin West, and through Boston Brahmin historian Francis Parkman, who helped make Wolfe a patriotic martyr. The second half deals with the case of Parkman's mercurial Uncle George whose dismembered body parts were found at Harvard Medical College one week after he disappeared on Thanksgiving Day, 1849. Although a genial, expansive Harvard chemistry professor was hanged for the crime, the conflicting testimony presented here casts doubt on the verdict. Schama blends fact, speculation and fictitious dialogue in a chronicle as gripping as a good detective novel." (David B. Mattern) Illustrated. Note on sources. 333 pp. ISBN: 0-679402136.