the House on Mound

This expansive historical novel opens in 1848, as Hercules Dousman, recognizing that the fur trade is coming to an end, shifts the focus of his business to real estate and the promise of transport by rail and riverboat. His wife, Jane, a Frenchwoman, tends to their son, nicknamed Dédé, but Hercules worries that she is coddling him to his harm. But a more serious matter emerges when he discovers that he has begotten a son following a torrid affair with Cecile Gardepi before his marriage to Jane. This son, George, is implacably hostile to Dousman, and Hercules is torn between pressuring him to become his heir and letting him pursue his own life. Having built a lavish home in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, Dousman is beset by business rivals, ongoing tensions with Native Americans, and other troubles; but it is his conflicted relationship with George that touches him most profoundly. August Derleth has written a moving novel of domestic strife amidst the early settlement of his native state, and the result is an enthralling read.