Savage Lands Book

This is a good book, provided you do not expect any romance, characters that are appealing, attractive, charming, or even nice, or expect early 19th century Lousiana to be anything but the worst frontier experience ever.

Elisabeth leaves France for Lousiana with a green silk featherbed, and books carefully tucked away. She is snapped up in marriage by a man with whom she falls in love to the point of madness, a madness that takes her to one ugly place after another. A boy named Auguste arrives on the same ship and is pressed into becoming a translator/spy for one of the local tribes. He, also, is drawn to the dark energy of Elisabeth's husband.

The Mississippi Company encouraged the settlement of Lousiana as part of an early investment bubble that eventually burst. In the first 20 years of colonization little progress was made. The horrible weather, flooding, disease made these settlements wretched. The enslavement of native Americans and the introduction of slaves from Africa simply added diversity to the misery.

Okay, so "Savage Lands" is a downer, but I actually enjoyed it. You will want to finish--could there be a bright star for somebody, right?