Astoria is Washington Irving's historical account of John Jacob Astor's fur-trading enterprise and the attempt to establish an American commercial presence in the Pacific Northwest. The book follows exploration, hardship, river travel, overland journeys, and the ambitions attached to trade and empire. Irving shapes documentary material into a narrative of risk, expansion, failed plans, and frontier endurance.
Astoria is useful for readers who want Washington Irving in a more historical and western mode. It reflects nineteenth-century assumptions about expansion, but it also preserves a dramatic account of commerce, geography, and early American ambition. Readers interested in fur trade history, Pacific Northwest exploration, frontier narratives, business ambition, and literary history will find a substantial nonfiction work.
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