Tanto giù cadde, che tutti argomenti
alla salute sua eran già corti
fuor che mostrargli le perdute genti.
Per questo visitai l’uscio dei morti…
PURGATORIO
He sank so low that all means
for his salvation were gone,
except showing him the lost people.
For this I visited the region of the dead …
THOUGH THE SETTING OF THIS novel appears to be New Orleans and the River Road, this city and this famous road are used here as place names of an imaginary terrain. The River Road does not really run into “Feliciana Parish.” In fact there is no Feliciana Parish now. There is no “English Coast” that I know of. There is an English Turn, but it is downriver not upriver from New Orleans. Felicity Street does cross Annunciation Street in New Orleans, but not near Lafayette Cemetery. Lafayette Cemetery does exist, but there is no jail or hospital or levee next to it. Murders and house burnings have occurred on River Road, but none, as far as I know, like those herein depicted. There never was a house named Belle Isle. There was a house named Northumberland in Spanish West Florida but it no longer stands. Nor do the characters bear any intentional relation to real persons living or dead.