Stars in Their Courses

Shelby Foote's monumental three-part chronicle of the Civil War was hailed by Walker Percy as "an unparalleled achievement, an American Iliad, a unique work uniting the scholarship of the historian and the high readability of the first-class novelist." Drawn from Foote's acclaimed and massive The Civil War: A Narrative - the central chapter of the central volume, and therefore the capstone of the arch - this new addition to the Modern Library offers a matchless account of the epic Gettysburg Campaign. Complete with detailed maps, Stars in Their Courses brilliantly re-creates the three-day conflict: it is a masterly treatment of a key great battle and the events that preceded it - not as legend has it but as it really was, before it became distorted by controversy and overblown by remembered glory.