A Gentleman in Charleston And the Manner of His Death

by William P. Baldwin III

Once deemed "the most powerful man in the south," Charleston newspaper editor Frank Dawson met his violent death on March 12, 1889, at the hands of his neighbor, a disreputable doctor who was attempting to seduce the Dawson family governess. More shocking than Dawson's demise was the quick acquittal of his killer on the grounds of self-defense. Drawn from events surrounding this infamous episode, the third novel from the Lillian Smith Award-winning William Baldwin pulls back the veil of a genteel society in a fabled southern city and exposes a dark visage of anger and secret pain that no amount of imposed manners could restrain - and only love might eventually heal.
With a southern storyteller's passion for intricate emotional and physical details, Baldwin, through the fictional guise of Capt. David Lawton, chronicles editor Dawson's fated end. Having survived three years of bloody Civil War combat and the decade of violent Reconstruction that followed, the liberal-minded Lawton is now a famed but embattled newspaperman whose national importance is on the wane. Still, he remains a celebrated member of Charleston's refined elite, while in private life moving amid a pantheon of proud and beautiful women - Rebecca, his brilliant wife; Abbie, his sensual sister-in-law; Mary, the all-knowing prostitute; and Helene, the discontented Swiss governess - each contributing to an unfolding drama of history-haunted turmoil. Though Lawton loathes the South's cult of personal violence, by the customs of his era and place, he is duty-bound to protect his household, and though he loves his wife, he, like the doctor he despises, is attracted to the other women around him and entangled in his own sexual intrigues. Unable to act otherwise, Lawton meets his rival in a brutal physical contest, and in the aftermath, Rebecca, Abbie, Mary, and Helene must make peace with their own turbulent pasts.
War, earthquake, political guile, adultery, illegitimacy, lust, and murder - all the devices of gothic romance - play a role in this tale closely based on the lives of Charlestonians who lived these events over a century ago. A Gentleman in Charleston and the Manner of His Death interrogates the social codes that govern behavior and relations among the men and women of different races and many classes and confronts us with the folly of the human condition. Will witnessing the killing of David Lawton instruct us as to how to escape our own fated ends? Slipped quietly beneath the storylines of Baldwin's quick-paced novel is perhaps an answer.

203 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[R.G. Ziemer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book would make a good souvenir of our vacation in Charleston, and I guess I was right. But I wouldn't have enjoyed the book too much for any other reason. It's pretty well written, and seems to be well-researched, too. I did enjoy the glimpses of Charleston during the Civil War, and the descriptions of life there in the 1880's. The story is based on the facts surrounding the murder of newspaper editor Frank Dawson, which event no doubt as much covered in press of the time due to the notoriety of the victim and the salacious details of the affair. But the facts were not enough for Baldwin, and he seems to have spiced the story up with sub-plots about the editor's visits to prostitutes, his bastard son, and the fortune teller who stalked the family. Further field trips from the main plot include background of his wife and her duel-prone brothers, Dawson's military exploits, and his attempts to find financial backing for his failing newspaper.

Little of that turns out to be pertinent, but it might have been interesting. However, Baldwin confuses the issue by jumping back and forth in time and place, and by changing points of view frequently instead of picking one and sticking with it. At times it seems the narrator is the editor's son as a grown man, other times we are led to believe it's an old friend and legal adviser. The point of view jumps from the editor to his wife, to her sister, the murderer, the governess, the illegitimate son, the fortune telling prostitute -- it's just too much! I feel like the author just had too much material. All the writings and journals and letters kept by the principals gave Baldwin so much to work with that he tried to put it all to use in this book. Too bad little of it had to do with the manner of the Charleston gentleman's death. Too bad. I wanted to like it.

[Sherri Coughlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't waste your time

I found it a chore to read and it ended up nowhere. I'm not even sure why I bought it.