Book
The Treasure of Pleasant Valley
First published 1955
In 1849 Bruce Harkness leaves a declining Carolina plantation and heads for California after losing the woman he loves. The voyage west gives him a loyal companion in Hailey Burke and a lasting enemy in the gambler Rufus King, while the promise of gold offers a chance to rebuild status and fortune far from the social order that shaped his youth.
California confronts Bruce with a mining society crowded by migrants, gamblers, speculators and people living beyond familiar institutions. Yerby combines romance with the physical risks of travel and the unstable economics of a gold rush, showing how quickly wealth can be created, stolen or lost. The historical setting makes reinvention possible, but it also exposes the violence and inequality beneath the frontier mythology of sudden opportunity.
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