American Classics PDF EPUB Audio

The House Behind the Cedars

Pages: 194

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Read by James K. White · 7 h 29 min · 33 parts

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A Stranger From South Carolina
20:26
An Evening Visit
28:10
The Old Judge
5:21
Down The River
13:31
The Tournament
20:02
The Queen of Love and Beauty
6:08
'Mid New Surroundings
6:25
The Courtship
15:30
Doubts And Fears
16:40
The Dream
12:17
A Letter and A Journey
11:53
Tryon Goes To Patesville
17:59
An Injudicious Payment
11:56
A Loyal Friend
11:45
Mine Own People
14:11
The Bottom Falls Out
11:01
Two Letters
7:55
Under The Old Regime
35:32
God Made Us All
18:37
Digging Up Roots
6:35
A Gilded Opportunity
15:39
Imperative Business
9:14
The Guest of Honor
16:56
Swing Your Partners
12:40
Balance All
7:33
The Schoolhouse In The Woods
9:08
An Interesting Acquaintance
7:02
The Lost Knife
11:30
Plato Earns Half A Dollar
13:58
An Unusual Honor
12:04
In Deep Waters
13:36
The Power of Love
7:33
A Mule And A Cart
21:09

The House Behind the Cedars (1900) is a public domain work.

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About this book

Charles W. Chesnutt's first novel appeared in 1900, when almost no American publisher wanted a Black writer examining the color line this directly. Rena Walden grows up in a small North Carolina town, light enough to pass, and follows her brother John into a white world where he has already built a career and a name. In South Carolina she meets George Tryon, a young aristocrat who falls in love with a woman he does not actually know. What Chesnutt does with the discovery that follows is quieter and crueler than melodrama would have allowed. The book asks what identity costs in a society determined to sort people, and it has not dated. Free PDF and EPUB edition available here.

About the author

Charles W. Chesnutt

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was an African American novelist and short-story writer whose work examined race, class, and the failures of Reconstruction. Writing from Cleveland while working as a legal stenographer, he became one of the first Black authors published by major American houses and an influential activist voice.