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Carnac's Folly — cover
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Aeneas Press edition Edwardian

Carnac's Folly

by Gilbert Parker 1862–1932

The book, and the century it came out of.

A Quebec lumber town, an election, a father and son on opposite sides of it, and a marriage the son cannot admit to. Parker was Canadian-born, settled in England, sat in Parliament for eighteen years and was knighted; he knew both the timber country and the committee rooms, and the politics here are not decoration — the whole plot turns on a secret that would cost the seat. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Homer, Gifford and Durand among them.

“Carnac! Carnac! Come and catch me, Carnac!” It was a day of perfect summer and hope and happiness in the sweet, wild world behind the near woods and the far circle of sky and pine and hemlock.
The first sentence of Carnac's Folly
A note on this edition

Carnac's Folly, by Gilbert Parker, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 192 pages
Reading time
about 4 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501343139
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Adirondack Lake (Blue Monday), Winslow Homer
Adirondack Lake (Blue Monday) Winslow Homer 1892
The Rainbow, George Inness
The Rainbow George Inness 1878
Landscape with a Sunlit Stream, Charles-François Daubigny
Landscape with a Sunlit Stream Charles-François Daubigny 1877
Rye Fields, Ivan Shishkin
Rye Fields Ivan Shishkin 1878
Landscape with Cows and Mill on the Horizon, Anton Mauve
Landscape with Cows and Mill on the Horizon Anton Mauve 1879
Girl at a water well, Jacek Malczewski
Girl at a water well Jacek Malczewski 1892
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Carnac's Folly as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Carnac's Folly as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Carnac's Folly, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Adventure & the Sea shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501343139, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Carnac's Folly?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Gilbert Parker's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 192 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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Carnac's Folly
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