Charles W. Chestnutt's The Marrow of Tradition

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Charles W. Chestnutt's The Marrow of Tradition

Clearly, one can expect differing critical views of a novel; from the

author's perspective we see one view, from a publisher's another, and from

the reviewer's yet another. This is especially true of Charles W.

Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition. If one observes both the contemporary

reviews of the novel and letters exchanged between Chesnutt and his

friends and publisher, Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., one will see the

disparity in opinions regarding the work. Chesnutt himself felt the work

was of at least good quality, and remarked often of its significant

purpose in letters to Booker T. Washington, Houghton, Mifflin, Isaiah B.

Scott, and William H. Moody. Reviewers, too, were able to see the

"purpose" of the novel as a significant one as evidenced by reviews in

Chautauquan, the New York Times, The Literary World, Nation, and New York

Age.

However, most reviews, even those which pointed out the important theme of

the novel, suggested that it was not a well written one, often seeming

overly dramatic and too fictionalized. Even Chesnutt's friend, W.D.

Howells, was quick to attack the quality of the novel. And, as one might

expect, a few reviews (especially those of a Southern origin) were nothing

but negative. Examples of these are the Atlanta Journal, Bookman, and the

Independent. Particularly scathing is that of the Independent, a magazine

which was considered friendly to the cause of Black rights. In a series of

lette...

... middle of paper ...

...things through a glass darkly, but we can

perhaps by constant iteration gradually help to undeceive them. I have

made an effort in this direction through my latest novel, The Marrow of

Tradition." And if the novel did not become the successor to Uncle Tom's

Cabin, as Chesnutt hoped, at least, in inflaming the critical community,

he achieved what he had desired: "to create sympathy throughout our

country for our cause. [...] I know I am on the weaker side in point of

popular sympathy, but I am on the stronger side in point of justice and

morality, and if I can but command the skill and the power to compel

attention, I think I will win out in the long, so far as I am personally

concerned, and will help the cause, which is vastly more important."

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