Charles W. Chestnutts The Marrow of Tradition Essay examples -- Chest

Charles W. Chestnutts The Marrow of Tradition Clearly, oneness can expect differing critical views of a novel from the authors perspective we collar one view, from a publishers another, and from the reviewers yet another. This is especially true of Charles W. Chesnutts 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 attain 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 out those which guide on ed out the important theme of the novel, suggested that it was not a well written one, often seeming overly dramatic and too fictionalized. Even Chesnutts friend, W.D. Howells, was quick to flak 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... ...things through a glass darkly, but we can perhaps by never-ending 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 Toms Cabin, as Chesnutt hoped, at least, in inflaming the critical community, he achieved what he had desired to create sympathy throughout our countr y 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.