Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line

by Charles W. Chesnutt, William L. Andrews (Introduction)

Unlike the popular "Uncle Remus" stories of Joel Chandler Harris, Charles W. Chesnutt's tales probe psychological depths in black people unheard of before in Southern regional writing. They also expose the anguish of mixed-race men and women and the consequences of racial hatred, mob violence, and moral compromise. This important collection contains all the stories in his two published volumes, The Conjure Woman and The Wife of His Youth , along with two uncollected works: the tragic "Dave's Neckliss" and "Baxter's Procustes", Chesnutt's parting shot at prejudice.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, American, African American, 19th Century, African American Literature

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 19, 1998

About the author

Charles Waddell Chesnutt was an author, essayist and political activist, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity.

Reviews

[Mel Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book for many years, but this is the first time I got to the latter half of it. That's too bad! Note that this is a compilation of two previously issued volumes of stories, with the addition of two stories previously published only in periodicals. If you care about the American short story, you don't want to miss this.
In my survey of American Lit we read the Goophered Grapevine. But the Julius stories of the Conjure Tales (the first section of this collection) are superficial and sometimes formulaic compared with the depth of the latter half of this volume. And the dialect really slowed me down in the Conjure Tales of the first half. However the psychology of Chestnutt's narrative voice choice is as intriguing as that of Willa Cather.

You will find the incredible irony of Ambrose Bierce or O. Henry and stark though not preachy social commentary on inherent injustices of the time, portrayed through believable characters. It is easy to see why William Dean Howells appreciated Chestnutt. The stories from "Dave's Neckliss" on I would consider equals to Poe, Hawthorne, and the American canonical masters of the short story.

For the 21st Century P.C. crowd you will need trigger warnings left and right. Things are said here and words are used that only a mixed-race author such as Chestnutt can get away with saying. Please keep in mind the setting and the local color aspect of the work.

But do not read these stories merely as social criticism about life as a mixed race person in the US. They are human stories. They show the power of lies and miscarried justice to destroy the lives of the most independent and ambitious. Perhaps most significantly, they show the truth of what Chestnutt writes in "The Web of Circumstance": "Out of what trifles grow the tragedies of life."
And occasionally, but rarely here, a glimmer of hope and redemption is offered. Only a glimmer, that we as readers would see the need to practice grace and compassion in light of such a dark world.

[Kathrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't figure out why I never encountered Chesnutt in any American history class in school. His works seem required reading for anyone wishing to put a face on slavery and post-war South. The first half of the book is Conjure Tales, a collection of stories farmed from Chesnutt's experience as a white landowner in the decades just after the Civil War. He employs an ex-slave to help him run a vineyard. This character, Uncle Julius, is portrayed as an ingenious storyteller, describing stories of how African slaves used the practice of voodoo to explain the tragedies of slavery, as well as to protect their interests, creating fear in the white community in order to keep them at a distance. Even Uncle Julius, a free man, uses his storytelling powers and whites' superstitious fears to achieve his own ends. The stories are haunting, and some, tragic, beautiful works of art. The second half of the book mainly concerns the strange place that mulattoes found themselves in after the abolition of slavery. Whether they were free before the war or not, they still were challenged to identify with any racial group, and enjoy the benefits of a supposedly free society, facing, and harboring their own, racial prejudices towards both whites and blacks. Chesnutt throws in an unrelated story at the very end, poking fun at book collectors, which, as a booklover, I especially enjoyed. I'm interested to know how many stories were based on real people and events, or had become Southern legends, and how generous Chesnutt was in elaborating his stories for literary ends. Either way, the book is enlightening and gorgeous reading.

[Whitaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really great book shows us how everything is great and worth to die for

[Matt Hickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only recently heard of Charles Chesnutt while trying to satisfy two criteria I’d set for my reading in 2020: One, to read more classics, and two, to read non-white authors. I was thrilled at the description of “The Conjure Woman” which comprises half of this book, and it delivered for me. “Conjure Woman” was written in response to white authors like Joel Chandler Harris who were finding great success appropriating black folk tales and using them to shamelessly celebrate plantation life. Chesnutt’s stories on the other hand are inspired by the conjure or hoodoo stories his grandfather told him and offer a critical, righteous, and heartbreaking depiction of plantation life. They’re the anti “Uncle Remus.” And they’re ingeniously constructed. Much like Remus, the stories are told by an ex-slave named Uncle Julius, who recalls the supernatural means people once went to for some semblance of peace or justice. These stories stand well on their own, but there’s always a clever ending to each story, where we see how telling these stories to his white employers affects their behavior, and secures an economic advantage for Julius that is unexpected. The second half of this collection is equally fascinating and some readers might prefer the social realism of “The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories” to the supernatural content of “Conjure Woman.” I didn’t expect to care for it but found it fascinating to read about the concerns of middle class black Americans in the 1890’s, an era of writing I’m really not familiar with.

[Imogen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before delving into what fell flat for me with this collection of short stories, I wanted to highlight that I greatly appreciated what this author and these stories did at the time that they were published. They brought racism to the forefront of conversation during the American Gilded Age and illuminated the inconsistencies and stupidity of the imagined beliefs all providing a great dialogue of important ideas.

However, I just didn’t like the stories. Whilst they focus heavily on changing conceptions of the inferiority of races, it just read incredibly racist! It was just filled with racist stereotypes and beliefs that it didn’t seem to challenge. This was most highlighted with the use of dialect and even though, yes, people did speak in strong dialect, the way it was constructed just did not sit right with me. The stories themselves dragged and were a little dull and I often struggled to find the meaning within them. Overall, I just don’t think the writing style was for me and I only enjoyed a few of the stories, all the others lacked in my opinion.

TW: misogyny, racism, racist slurs, white supremacy

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book held many interesting stories that played against the general positive ideal of plantation fiction that was prevalent at the time. However, all of these stories followed a very similar and basic formula that began to get old after a while, and the dialects written in made reading the stories difficult. This is an interesting piece of history that should be taught, just not the most fun read in the world.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dialect wholly shapes the reading of Chesnutt's stories. It engages readers with the characters' cultural and social realities in the postwar South. Uncle Julius' speech is a vehicle to show a powerful narrative tool of dialect, such as by having humor, intelligence, and criticism of racial exploitation in the Reconstruction era of the South. For example, Uncle Julius's use of "gwine" or "monst’us quare" shows his regional and cultural identity, yet it supports his role as the storyteller, which is rooted in oral traditions.

The dialect is the bridge between the past, present, and future, and it allows readers to face how language shapes history and identity while retaining resilience in oppression. By immersing the readers in AAVE and phonetic spellings to create a rhythm or cadence of African American speech, Chesnutt's creates a memorable narrative that honors the voice of those who have historically been silenced.

[Chris brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

read for a class did not enjoy.

[Amanda ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for my 19th century lit class- important ideas but the dialect makes this so hard to get through

[kamiye · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Chesnutt said: big brain, and I'm here for it.

[Katie • forevermorepages]

not rating, but definitely an important read.

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn’t get past the first pages because of the heavy, heavy use of dialect. I know it was a different time and all that, but it’s unreadable and uncomfortable.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of short stories set during slavery and Reconstruction. Most of them are deeply sad, but humor runs throughout.

It's not 5 stars for me because I find reading dialect such a slog.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reader quickly glossing a few pages from the conjure section of this collection might be tempted to write it off as yet another shallow "dialect" bit of 19th-century regionalism riding on the coattails of Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories. Chesnutt, however, exploited the literary fad of his day by spinning fantastical and entertaining folk stories wrapped around stark, thinly-veiled truths about the inhumanity of slavery; a striking contrast to the moonlight-and-magnolias nostalgia of Harris and sentimental plantation novelists like Thomas Nelson Page.

And that's just in the first half of the book. In this collection's second half, Chesnutt (himself a product of mixed heritage) moves beyond fantasy to explore the harsh realities of life on both sides of the "color line," both in the past, with riveting and clever stories like "The Passing of Grandison," and in the present, with the touching "The Wife of His Youth."

Chesnutt is great reading, both as a strong, early voice in post-Civil War African American literature, and as an alternative to the largely mediocre (or worse) white Southern literature of the period.

[Cyd Beacham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read of stories that kept me intrigued.

[Outstanding, affordably priced volume presents a selection of ten best stories by a pioneer in the development of African-American fiction: "The Goophered Grapevine," "Po’ Sandy," "Sis’ Becky’s Pickaninny," "The Wife of His Youth," "Dave’s Neckliss," "The Passing of Grandison," "A Matter of Principle," "The Sheriff’s Children," "Baxter’s Procrustes," and "The Doll." Redolent with wit, charm, and insight; essential reading for students of African-American culture. Edited and with an Introduction by Joan Sherman.]

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Conjure Tales were a little hard to read because all are written predominately in vernacular. Stories of the Color Line is uneven but contains some real gems. I am glad to have familiarized myself with Chesnutt but cannot say I was swept away by this volume. I recommend it with reservations.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing.

[Amelia Esguerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that satirically comments on how blacks are treated in the south just after the civil war.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked these stories, but I can see why others wouldn't. There is a lot of old slave dialect. Be prepared to try and sounds out most of the words.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

These short stories were like a bag of potato chips: I kept thinking "oh I'll just read one more" until I found the entire book was gone. "Baxter's Procrustes" was by far my favorite.