Barkskins

Barkskins is a 2016 novel by American writer Annie Proulx. It tells

the story of two immigrants to New France, René Sel and Charles
Duquet, and of their descendants.[1] It spans over 300 years and
witnesses the deforestation of the New World from the arrival of
Europeans into the contemporary era of global warming.[2][3]

Contents
Plot
Major themes
Nature
Borders
Reception
Publication
In other media
Television First Scribner hardcover edition
References June 2016
Author Annie Proulx
Country United States
Plot Language English

The eponymous "barkskins" are indentured servants, transported Genre Historical fiction
from Paris slums to the wilds of New France in 1693, "... to clear the Publisher Simon and Schuster
land, to subdue this evil wilderness," (p. 17) according to their
Publication 2016
master, a seigneur. The two men are contracted for three years of date
service to earn land of their own, but Charles Duquet runs away at
the first opportunity, seeking to make a fortune for himself in the fur Media type Print
trade or by any means he can. René Sel, on the other hand, dutifully Pages 736 (first edition)
wields the axe clearing farmland for the master. Later, he is forced to ISBN 978-0-7432-8878-1
marry the master’s cast off Mi’kmaq woman, Mari, a healer who
gives him children. The Sel family heritage is thus Native American LC Class PR3566.R697 B37
and working class. 2016
Website Official website (http://
Duquet, luckily surviving his escape through the wilderness, has a
www.simonandschust
fortune to make, mostly on furs and lumber, and by swindling others
er.com/books/Barkskin
whenever he can get away with it. Only then will he marry the
daughter of a Dutch business partner, open an office in Boston, s/Annie-Proulx/978074
therefore Anglicizing the family name to Duke, and father or adopt 3288781)
the boys who will build the Duke & Sons timber empire after him.

All the while, for the Sel family, there is unceasing discontent. The young are always seeking their future as
Native Americans in a whiteman's world. Indian lumbermen, for example, were always recruited for river
work balancing on the longest logs rushing down a river where an awkward move could get a man crushed
before he drowned.(p. 299)

Major themes

Nature

Human struggles with nature are a recurring theme in Annie Proulx's books.[4] About the forest in
Barkskins, Proulx said, "It's the underpinning of life. Everything is linked to the forest. This is but one facet
of larger things, like climate change and the melting of the ice. So deforestation is part of a much, much
larger package."[2]

Borders

As noted in her memoir, Bird Cloud, [5] Annie Proulx grew up in New England, attended college in Canada,
and had a lifelong practice of spending summers in Newfoundland and winters in the States. Thus, she was
well acquainted with the geography of the novel and familiar with national and cultural borderlands. Proulx
herself descended from English Americans on her mother's side and French Canadians on her father's, which
makes her "mixed", although not to the same degree as the Sels in Barkskins.[6] For the Sel family, the
whiteman's cultural borders were closed to them in many ways because the borders of their homelands were
never closed enough.

Reception
Barkskins received a 74% rating from the book review aggregator iDreamBooks based on 26 critics'
reviews.[7] Review aggregator Book Marks reported three mixed and two negative reviews among 26 total,
indicating "positive" reviews.[8]

With few exceptions, reviewers praised the novel particularly with regard to the brilliance of Annie Proulx’s
prose, the intimately detailed scenes by which she reveals the complex inner lives of her characters, and/or
breathtaking scenes of fearful destruction as well as awesome beauty. The forests and deforestation of the
New World underlie the epic scope of the book, while human adventures range beyond the central concerns
of forest ecology and the logging industry. The narrative is partitioned into books that turn the reader’s
attention to one family or another across generations.[1][4][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Some reviewers thought the sweeping epic scope of the work created a faulty or difficult structure for the
novel as a whole.[4][15][16] Several expressed disappointment that the passage of so many years seemed to
shorten the time given to the portrayals of some promising characters, especially toward the end of the
book.[1][9][15][16] Some inconsistencies were noted; for example, changes in the diction of a Native
American character's speech within a single episode.[4][16] The didactic nature of the theme was both
applauded and faulted. A few reviewers thought it undercut the narrative perspective at times, imposing a
good vs. evil dichotomy.[4][15][16] Proulx’s descriptions were universally admired. Most readers found
verisimilitude in these observations of the uncertainty and fragility of life, while a few spoke of an
overwhelming echo of doom long foretold.[1][15][16]

Publication
Excerpts from the novel were published in The New Yorker in March 2016.[3]
In other media

Television

A dramatic television series, based on the novel premiered on May 25, 2020 on National Geographic.[17]

References
1. Cummins, Anthony (19 June 2016). "Barkskins review – a grisly tale of chopping down people
and trees" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/19/barkskins-annie-proulx-review).
The Observer. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
2. Proulx, Annie (June 10, 2016). "All Things Considered" (https://www.npr.org/2016/06/10/48144
9357/annie-proulx-s-bloody-new-novel-barkskins-is-about-more-than-deforestation). Annie
Proulx's Bloody New Novel 'Barkskins' Is About More Than Deforestation.". Retrieved
September 23, 2016.
3. Leyshon, Cressida (14 March 2016). "This Week in Fiction: Annie Proulx Discusses Her
Upcoming Novel, "Barkskins" " (http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/fiction-this-week-
annie-proulx-2016-03-21). The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
4. Vollman, William (June 17, 2016). "New York Times" (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/boo
ks/review/barkskins-by-annie-proulx.html?_r=0). 'Barkskins' by Annie Proulx. Retrieved
September 23, 2016.
5. Proulx, Annie (2011). Bird Cloud: A Memoir of Place (https://archive.org/details/birdcloudmemo
ir0000prou). New York, NY: Scribner. ISBN 978-0743288811.
6. Jocelyn, Hannah May (2016). " 'No Perfect House' : Destabilized Domesticity by Border
Crosser Annie Proulx" (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/611220). Interdisciplinary Literary Studies.
18 (1): 96–111. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
7. "Barkskins" (http://idreambooks.com/Barkskins-A-Novel-by-Annie-Proulx/reviews/1457728).
iDreamBooks.
8. "Book Marks reviews of Barkskins by Annie Proulx" (https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/barkski
ns/).
9. Finch, Charles (June 13, 2016). "USA Today" (https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2016/
06/13/barkskins-annie-proulx-book-review/85569218/). Annie Proulx's Epic 'Barkskins' has
Urgent Message. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
10. Wagner, Erica (June 10, 2016). "Travelling 320 years through the mind of Annie Proulx in
Barkskins" (http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2016/06/travelling-320-years-through
-mind-annie-proulx-barkskins). New Statesman. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
11. " 'Barkskins' by Annie Proulx" (http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2016/06/travelling-
320-years-through-mind-annie-proulx-barkskins). Kirkus Reviews. April 1, 2016. Retrieved
September 23, 2016.
12. Charles, Ron (June 6, 2016). "Washington Post" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainm
ent/books/annie-proulxs-long-awaited-spectacular-new-novel-barkskins/2016/06/06/75371af4-
29ba-11e6-a3c4-0724e8e24f3f_story.html?tid=kp_google). Annie Proulx's Long Awaited
Spectacular New Novel 'Barkskins'. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
13. Powers, Kathryn (June 9, 2016). "Newsday" (http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/books/ba
rkskins-review-annie-proulx-has-written-her-masterpiece-1.11892370). 'Barkskins' Review:
Annie Proulx Has Written Her Masterpiece. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
14. Anderson, Don (July 22, 2016). "Sydney Morning Herald" (http://www.smh.com.au/entertainme
nt/books/review-barkskins-by-annie-proulx-foresees-the-end-of-wilderness-20160718-gq84oc.
html). Review: Barkskins by Annie Proulx Foresees the End of Wilderness. Retrieved
September 24, 2016.
15. Garner, Dwight (June 16, 2016). "New York Times" (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/book
s/annie-proulx-barkskins-review.html). Review: Annie Proulx’s ‘Barkskins’ Is an Epic Tale of
Logging and Doom. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
16. Hensher, Philip (June 4, 2016). "Annie Proulx is Lost in the Woods" (http://www.spectator.co.u
k/2016/06/annie-proulx-is-lost-in-the-woods/). The Spectator. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
17. "National Geographic Announces Memorial Day Premiere for Limited Series "Barkskins" with
Back-to-Back Episodes Over Four Weeks Beginning Monday, May 25, at 9/8c" (http://www.thef
utoncritic.com/news/2020/04/13/national-geographic-announces-memorial-day-premiere-for-li
mited-series-barkskins-with-back-to-back-episodes-over-four-weeks-beginning-monday-may-2
5-at-9-8c-999301/20200413ngc01/). The Futon Critic. April 13, 2020.

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