Bibliograph

The ballad of Laurel Springs, Janet Beard

Type

Label

The ballad of Laurel Springs, Janet Beard

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

fiction

Main title

The ballad of Laurel Springs

Oclc number

1193559650

Responsibility statement

Janet Beard

Summary

Ten-year-old Grace is in search of a subject for her fifth-grade history project when she learns that her four times-great grandfather once stabbed his lover to death. His grisly act was memorialised in a murder ballad, her aunt tells her, so it must be true. Her family's tangled past is part of a dark legacy in which the lives of generations of women are affected by the violence immortalised in folksongs like 'Knoxville Girl' and 'Pretty Polly' reminding them always to know their place-- or risk the wages of sin. -- adapted from jacket

Table Of Contents

Pretty Polly: Grace, 2019 -- The wife of Usher's Well: Pearl (Grace's great-great-great-great-grandmother), 1907-1908 -- The wayfaring stranger: Miriam (Pearl's daughter-in-law), 1925 -- Careless love blues: Frieda (Miriam's "stepdaughter"), 1937 -- Devil's dream: Polly (Frieda's half-sister) 1942-1962 -- Little sparrow: Sarah (Polly's daughter), 1974-1975 -- The Knoxville girl: Carrie (Sarah's daughter), 1985-1993 -- Power in the blood: Lydia (Carrie's "goddaughter"), 2011-2013 -- Pretty Polly (reprise): Polly (Lydia's great-great-great-great-aunt), 1891

Target audience

adult

Classification