In Ole Virginia: Or, Marse Chan And Other Stories

by Thomas Nelson Page

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Genres: Short Stories, Southern, Classics

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1887

About the author

Born at Oakland, one of the Nelson family plantations, in the village of Beaverdam in Hanover County, Virginia to John Page and Elizabeth Burwell Nelson. He was a scion of the prominent Nelson and Page families, each First Families of Virginia. Although he was from once-wealthy lineage, after the American Civil War, which began when he was only 8 years old, his parents and their relatives were largely impoverished during Reconstruction and his teenage years. In 1869, He entered Washington College, known now as Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia when Robert E. Lee was president of the college. After three years, Page left Washington College before graduation for financial reasons. To earn money for the law degree he desired, Page taught the children of his cousins in Kentucky. From 1873 to 1874, he was enrolled in the law school of the University of Virginia in pursuit of a legal career. At Washington College and thereafter at UVA, Nelson was a member of the prestigious fraternity Delta Psi, AKA St. Anthony Hall.

Admitted to the Virginia Bar Association, he practiced as a lawyer in Richmond between 1876 and 1893, and began writing. He was married to Anne Seddon Bruce on July 28, 1886. She died on December 21, 1888 of a throat hemorrhage.

He remarried on June 6, 1893, to Florence Lathrop Field, a widowed sister-in-law of retailer Marshall Field. In the same year Page gave up his law practice entirely and moved with his wife to Washington, D.C..There, he kept up his writing, which amounted to eighteen volumes when they were compiled and published in 1912. Page popularized the plantation tradition genre of Southern writing, which told of an idealized version of life before the Civil War, with contented slaves working for beloved masters and their families. His 1887 collection of short stories, In Ole Virginia, is the quintessential work of that genre. Another short-story collection of his is entitled The Burial of the Guns (1894).

Under President Woodrow Wilson, Page served as U.S. ambassador to Italy for six years between 1913 and 1919. His book entitled Italy and the World War (1920) is a memoir of his service there.

He died in 1922 at Oakland in Hanover County, Virginia.

Reviews

[Brian B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The one story where Page inadvertently shows the reader the horrors of what slavery can do almost bumps this up to 3 stars, but in the end it's nothing but well-written pro-slavery nonsense.

[Lisa of Troy]

A Book Owned by F. Scott Fitzgerald: https://static-prod.lib.princeton.edu...

[Dan Downing · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of life's joys is the used book sale. Another is the personal library. According to my penciled note, this volume was purchased by me in August of 1970. Yesterday I plucked it from the shelf, leafed through a bit, and decided to read it. Part of my 45 years-in-the-making decision was how much of the book seemed to be written in dialect. I have been watching "The Wire" 2-4 hours per day for ten days or so, and thus have heard a lot of dialect.

At first one thinks Page is sympathetic to the plight of the Negro. A favorite ploy is to have a passer-bye inquire of a darkie about some local place or event. The narration then falls to the always polite and accommodating black man. In time one realizes that the picture being attempted is that of the simple, content, slightly stupid, somewhat lazy colored man of the Old South's dream. Sadly, for Mr. Page, what emerges are portraits of indulgent, hysterical, emotionally stunted white people contrasted with hard-working, loyal and effective dark folk. The whites can generally do no better than conjure ghosts, die of insipid 'love', and fall on the sword of prickly pride. Many of the 'plots' are expanded versions of Child Ballads.

Mr. Page apparently was once quite the literary lion, listing over 30 titles in the front of my 1915 copy with a copyright date of 1887. Due to the pedestrian writing and flaccid plots, it is no wonder he is little noted today.

I have claimed not to read Two Star books. This rare exception was made due to the social and historical insight, which may be appreciated only by having a background in what life really was like during the period Mr. page addresses. It becomes evident he was a dewy eyed, dreamy bigot of the worst sort. One odd truth which seems to still be with us: several of his narrators claim to have been raised with their white Masters, and to have formed a brotherly bond with said 'owner'. Yet the Master speaks, when given the chance, perfect English, while his from birth buddy speaks in strong dialect. This is reflected in modern times in the much better written and compelling stories of "The Wire', where even black officers have trouble understanding the overheard conversation. Apparently we can acquire different dialects growing up a few blocks or a few years apart, given sufficient psychic isolation. While not recommended in the usual sense, "In Ole Virginia" does retain the power to instruct the attentive reader about the nature of racism.

[Peggy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found and bought this book several years ago based on it being part of the Southern Classics Series which has published several other authors I really like (Caroline Gordon, Allen Tate). I tried to read it then but didn't finish and was determined to get through it this time; I did but I would be hard-pressed to recommend it.

Although it tells of an interesting period of time - the years surrounding the Civil War in the plantation era of Virginia's Old South heritage - it is with too consistently an overly-romanticized voice to feel accurate. It is a collection of short stories that are almost the same one repeated over and again: faithful, adoring relationships of plantation owners and their slaves; stories of "d' good ol' days" expounded upon by an ancient "retainer" ever loyal to the old family about gallant "masters" and impossibly beautiful "mistresses;" noble, faultless love affairs thwarted (but never diminished) for years by war and loyalty to parents whose politics conflict. It seems like an impossibly idealized version of that time and place and furthermore is almost all delivered in the dialect version of the Eastern Virginia Negroes, making if also a difficult read.

The author, Thomas Nelson Page, was eight years old when the Civil War started. He was considered a major figure in the Genteel School of Southern Letters in the postbellum period. There are some splendid opinions of his writing; after all, he is part of this classics series. For someone willing to take the time and circumstances into consideration, along with the issues mentioned above, it may be considered a good historical read. Certainly some aspects of his accounting of that period of time is definitely worthwhile.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually have the 1887 first edition of this book and put off reading for many yeas because of my dislike of short stories , the first story was ok , second not so but all the others were very good. I see where other readers thought the author was not painting a true picture of the times. What do we really know to be true from so many years ago. Even events happening today are not reported as they truly happened very often. And these were just stories, not history.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, yes -- the good old days of the ante-bellum South when slaves were happy and ignorant, their owners were patronizing and benign, and the belles of the plantations pined for their absent beaux.

Originally published in the 1880s, this collection of stories never reflected reality, yet it's still in print.

[Humphrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories like "Meh Lady" simulate Northern-Southern reconciliation, while others rewrite slavery as familial and beniegn. None of them are particularly interesting, let alone good, but they were of course once quite popular.

[Jim Booth · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my review at The New Southern Gentleman. http://newsoutherngentleman.wordpress... Also available at my Goodreads pprofile page.