Wilderness by Robert Penn Warren. Short summary

5 seconds

Adam Rosenzweig, a Bavarian Jew and idealist, goes to America to «fight for freedom. But the American Civil War turns out to be another circle of life’s hell, from which the hero emerges enlightened.

1 minute

Adam Rosenzweig, a young Jew, goes to the United States to fight in the Civil War on the side of the Northerners. He is an idealist, believing that his cause is simple and righteous.

But already on the voyage of the Elmira, Adam realizes the complexity of the life he seeks. The Europeans enlisted for war laugh at him. In New York, he sees the bloody riots against the draft.

A leg crippled from childhood prevents Adam from going to war, and he becomes a pharmacist’s assistant. He rides in a marquee wagon, constantly exposed to danger, encountering bandits, marauders, and deserters.

Black Mois Tolbat is a deserter from the army of the North, who also can’t stand «the blacks who are at war.» Southerner Jed Hawksworth hates blacks but fights for the northerners, having quarreled with his parents. But both will die in this carnage.

Adam goes through all the circles of hell. But he comes out of it enlightened, having given up his former self. Adam puts on the shoes of a dead man to become worthy of the dead.