The Magazine Novels of Pauline Hopkins: (Including Hagar's Daughter, Winona, and Of One Blood)

by Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins

The Colored American Magazine, first published in 1900, was a pioneering forum for black literary talent. Pauline Hopkins was not only a prolific contributor, but one of its powerful editorial forces. These stories reveal her commitment to fiction as a vehicle for social change, weaving themes such as white oppression, the heroism of black women, and the need for organized resistance to persecution, into the narrative formulas of popular fiction.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, African American, Anthologies, Black Literature, Literature, 19th Century

672 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 1988

About the author

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859 – August 13, 1930) was a prominent African-American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes. Her work reflects the influence of W. E. B. Du Bois.

She also wrote under the pseudonym Sarah A. Allen.

Reviews

[Tamar...playing hooky for a few hours today · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have little time to read and no time to write now...but I can find enough time to say that this author writes beautifully with much atmosphere and some innocence even where cruel and ugly behavior prevails. Written in the days when people bought magazines, religiously following serial stories (do magazines still do that? I haven't read a magazine in at least 40 years!). You definitely get a cliffhanger, signaling the end of the installment until the next week. These novellas are in the public domain, I downloaded all three from the internet but have only read Winona so far. Winona can be found on Gutenberg Project.

[Annette Boehm · Rating 4 out of 5]

These three novels were an interesting read for me, both as historical documents / cultural artifacts and as entertaining stories. Hopkins believed in teaching her African American readership through serialized stories, - as a result, these novels try to entertain and educate at the same time. The plot-lines are at times not unlike those of soap operas - but I don't want to spoil the surprises, so I'll leave it at that.
For an in-depth discussion of each of the novels, visit my book blog here: https://outsideofacat.wordpress.com/2...

[Hermes Kingsbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

She wrote these as serialized short stand alone chapters in a magazine for African Americans. The rhythm of the chapters can be a little bit fuddy as there is always a great climax and a cliffhanger. Each novel is chock full of insight into the incredibly rich and complicated layers of race and racism in post Civil War America.

I first read “Hagar and her Daughter” in one sitting - a 1900 story of a “great and noble” white liberal from Massachusetts writing papers about the horrors of post-Civil War racism while at Harvard, acting as a philanthropist to black universities, newspapers and politicians yet personally harboring destructive racist ideas of purity that destroy him. It is such a telling work of fiction.

Each unveils a different angle of experiences within a time both so different and not all different from our own.

[Willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty damn interesting collection. Check this out to see some really shocking racial issues as someone in the 19th century would have viewed and understood them.

[Kishanna Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still think about "Of One Blood" and I read this in college [undergrad:], memorable.

[E_h · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I only read Winona and Of One Blood)