Thomas B. Costain · 1949 · river

Thomas B. Costain's 1949 novel of New France. The Le Moyne brothers of Montreal - fourteen sons of a Norman settler, the most formidable family in Canada - push south down the rivers to hold the whole interior of a continent for France, and end by founding a city at the mouth of the Mississippi.

1. 1
   Montreal

   The Le Moynes are the great fighting family of New France, raised on the St Lawrence and schooled in raiding, trade and the politics of a colony always short of men and money - and their ambition runs a continent's length.

2. 2
   The Mississippi

   Down through the lakes and portages to the great river, and the French design becomes visible: a chain of posts from the St Lawrence to the Gulf that would pen the English colonies behind the Appalachians for good.

3. 3
   Biloxi

   On the Gulf coast, Iberville plants the first settlement and the family's hold on Louisiana begins - in fever, sand and constant argument with a court in France that cannot be made to understand the distances involved.

4. 4
   New Orleans

   Bienville founds a city on a crescent of the lower river, in swamp that everyone tells him is uninhabitable - and the novel ends with the Le Moyne design realised and the family that made it largely used up.