[Download] "John March, Southerner" by George W. Cable * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: John March, Southerner
- Author : George W. Cable
- Release Date : January 01, 1925
- Genre: Historical,Books,Romance,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 392 KB
Description
John March, Southerner, a romantic novel criticizing the numerous ills of the Reconstruction-era South, including political corruption, vigilante violence, race riots, and misconceptions of southern honor. Set in the village of Suez in the fictional state of Dixie, the novel revolves around the coming of age of its hero, John March. As a young southerner, March struggles to develop his own value system when confronted with the questionable ethics of his father's slaveholding generation, as well as the corruption of both blacks and whites in the New South. When John March, Sr. dies, John Jr. becomes involved in a scheme to industrialize Widewood, his family plot. His earnest desire to grow into a gentleman, coupled with his bumbling naivetΓ©, saves John from corruption, and he remains an endearing character surrounded by individuals intent on swindling away his land. Even his mother cannot be trusted; she enters into a clandestine engagement with General Garnet, a neighbor who is chiefly responsible for John's lost inheritance. The land is returned to the March name when General Garnet's daughter, Barbara, goes against her father and alerts John to his fraudulent dealings. Barbara ultimately emerges as the novel's heroine as well as John's love. John March, Southerner was not a popular success, nor was it well received by contemporary critics. Though ambitious in its attack of the New South's corruption, the novel has been criticized for lacking clarity. Cable's efforts toward realism are overshadowed by the text's romantic structure, particularly when details of Barbara and John's budding relationship obscure plot resolution. However, Louis Rubin argues that the novel deserves reconsideration for Cable's realistic character portrayal. Cable did not rely on stock characters; rather, he drew from his own experience of Reconstruction. Paving the way for William Faulkner, Cable depicted in General Garnet a former Confederate general who abuses his power and position in his small town. In Cornelius Leggett, he offers the portrait of a former slave who becomes a blackmailing, greedy politician.