Madame Delphine

by George Washington Cable

Madame Delphine By George Washington Cable

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

36 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1881

About the author

George Washington Cable was an American novelist notable for the realism of his portrayals of Creole life in his native Louisiana.

Reviews

[Mark Stephenson]

Sentimental evocation of a long gone era in New Orleans when it was common, even expected that white men of substance would maintain a mulatto, quadroon, or octaroon mistress but marriage between whites and blacks (of any category) was illegal. Pere Jerome, a Catholic priest, performs a key role in enabling the marriage of two sympathetic and nicely characterized lovers to whom race seems an insuperable obstacle. The success of this story in its day (1881) may have helped pave the way for liberalization of laws restricting interracial marriage.

[Miles Smith]

A magnificent novel that explored the sin of racism in the American South. I want give away any spoilers, but this is considered one of Cable’s two greatest works for a reason. The characters and the plot are haunting. The narrative’s disturbing resolution made Cable, a Southern Presbyterian with progressive views on race in Nineteenth Century New Orleans, a bit of a pariah.

[Illiterate]

A sentimental story tackling racist marriage laws.

[Reg]

Wtf. That was not what I expected.

[Maddie Cramer]

Instead of reading Cable’s interpretation of mixed race relationships in nineteenth-century Louisiana, I should have read Charles Chesnutt’s.

[Donna]

Reading online...also found articles he wrote of the great floods and "plagues" of New Orleans during the 1800's...

[Tocotin]

It was very sad, but it made me want to read more of Cable.