Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization)

Book Description

Born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, within the shelter of old traditions, aristocratic in the best sense, William Alexander Percy in his lifetime (1885-1942) was brought face to face with the convulsions of a changing world. Lanterns on the Levee is his memorial to the South of his youth and young manhood. In describing life in the Mississippi Delta, Percy bridges the interval between the semifeudal South of the 1800s and the anxious South of the early 1940s. The rare qualities of this classic memoir lie not in what Will Percy did in his life—although his life was exciting and varied—but rather in the intimate, honest, and soul-probing record of how he brought himself to contemplate unflinchingly a new and unstable era. The 1973 introduction by Walker Percy—Will's nephew and adopted son—recalls the strong character and easy grace of "the most extraordinary man I have ever known." AUTHOR BIO: William Alexander Percy was the author of four books of poetry, and he practiced law in Greenville until his death, one year after the publication of his autobiography. Awarded the Croix de Guerre with gold star for his service in World War I, he also was one of the leaders in the succesful 1922 fight against the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville and headed the local Red Cross unit during the disastrous Mississippi River flooding of 1927.

Customer Reviews:

Over hyped.......2007-06-30

I've heard great things about this book, but it simply doesn't live up to the reviews. It isn't vivid, isn't absorbing, isn't all that interesting. It is a decent piece of period biography, and if you're interested in the Percy family or the region or time period, it might be worthwhile. Otherwise, give this one a pass.

Not Impressed.......2006-02-06

This is my first book about planters and plantation life. It was my expectation that the author would give more specific information about plantation finances and management. This subject is hardly touched upon. He does briefly give his opinions about slavery, but there is nothing unique about it. Basically, this is a nice, slow look back at a bygone time, but it left me wondering how the heck did these people come about, and maintain or eventually lose their wealth.

Elusive find: an autobiography of literary quality.......2005-10-09

Percy's approach to life can be summed up by a quote from the book: "It is a very nice world-that is, if you remember that while morals are all-important between the Lord and His creatures, what counts between one creature and another is good manners." Percy's book is a rare member of that most elusive category of books - the autobiography of true literary quality. Percy's touch is honest without being journalistic; poetic without appearing over-embroidered; and in his own eccentric person he provides the subject matter which is required to make such a work interesting. He steps out of the late 19th/early 20th century Mississippi delta as a character that could not have existed anywhere else. Affected, genteel, kind, elitist, romantic and with a view of race more in keeping with British Imperial "white man's burden" line of thought than anything American in origin - Percy the character remains fascinating even as the modern reader disagrees with his positions. A clearly and well told tale of an extinct breed (the gentrified southern aristocrat), a lost land (the Mississippi delta of the turn of the 20th century), and a buried epoch (the pre desegregation era). An excellent book - well worth reading not only to better understand a particular aspect of American history but for the pleasure of reading a well written book, regardless of the subject matter.

Perceptions of a Southern Artistocrat.......2004-01-23

It is true that this book attempts to explain the South, in both its physical and social aspects, from the point of view of the "landed gentry." However, a more accurate description of "Lanterns on the Levee" is that of an autobiography of William A. Percy, in which he reflects upon his life and the interesting times in which he lived. I found this book very inciteful into the mind of a southerner, and believe that Mr. Percy did a fine job of bringing his broad experiences with different cultures and social climates into this book, and using these to produce a cogent analysis of his homeland. Though not completely objective (and often bigoted by today's standards), I think that Mr. Percy did his best to "tell it as he saw it," and often admits his biases as a precursor to his analysis. The book is very poetic and philosophical in places, and includes both the subjective and emotional sentiments that one must understand in order to come to terms with "a southerner's love for the south." Additionally, I feel that Mr. Percy (especially in his last few chapters) provides the reader with thought-provoking and highly articulate observations about life, time, and human-nature. I think this book is excellent, and believe it to be a "must read" for anybody with an open-minded interest in the Missisippi Delta region, or the South in general.

A Lost Voice Of A Lost Cause.......2002-12-14

This is one of those books that is almost impossible to objectively review. The writing is elegant and evocative of an era in the South that died almost in tandem with Mr. Percy and yet I find some parts of it so arrogant and condescending that I feel myself grinding my teeth. You see, I am descended from those Mississippi hill people Percy so despised and, even after all this time, I can almost see the languid gaze and soft, drawling voice. My people came to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Flood of '27 and we build and earned what we got without the benefit of the massive slave labor that built Mr. Percy's fortune.

But this is a book review and I'll put aside old feelings to say that this is a literary gem that brings to life a way of life on which so many stereotypes of the South are built. And Will Percy is amazingly honest in his descriptions of his society. However, a society this simple and yet this complex takes more than just one book to grasp.

Thus, I also recommend "Rising Tide" by John Barry and "The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity" by James Cobb to balance your view of this time and place in history.

Book Description

The story of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson in the early 1830s to wrest his mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, "who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him."

Customer Reviews:

A Fourteen Way Of Looking At A Blackbird.......2007-04-17

This is a dark, convoluted, complex novel written in a stream of consciousness text that can easily confuse and scare the casual reader away. For the serious reader who is willing to put the time and effort into this work of art you will not be let down. First, however, you must read The Sound and the Fury (SAF). If you work your way through that novel and you "get it" and love it, then Absalom is a absolute must. But be prepared. T.S. Eliot once said of the book that it communicates before it is understood. Typical Faulkner. It takes some fortitude and a little background. Let me help with a little background. For starters, The title comes from an the Old Testament (2 Samuel 13). Absalom, one of David's sons kills his brother Amnon for raping their sister Tamar. Hence the title and a clue. The book is full of clues and in a sense can be taken by the reader as detective story full of mystery and revenge, suspense and gothic drama. This is the story of Southern tradgedy and the fall of the House of Sutpen. The central character is Thomas Sutpen who is the fountainhead of the southern, self-reliant man seeking to reach the American dream through creating a grand design of dynasty. To pass his dynasty on to his eldest legitimate son is part of the design and part its downfall. The story takes place before, during, and after the Civil War and issues such as race, miscegenation, class, economy, worker's rights, women's rights are all spun into the story that is a portrait of Southern realism. The story is told by four narrators: Quentin Compson (from SAF), Quentin's father, Quentin's roomate Shreve, and Miss Rosa Coldfield. Quentin however is the central narrator and by reading SAF one can better understand the issues facing Quentin and the reason he struggles so much with this story. Absalom is very much the story of Quentin's hatred for the bad qualities in the southern country that he loves. Much of the story as told by Quentin and Shreve is purely imaginative construction of what could have been as they speculate on the enigmatic drama that unfolds. In the back of the book is a genealogy and chronology which is extremely helpful as the story often jumps from one time period to another and from one character to another. Work on keeping it straight and reread if necessary. The book doesn't get any easier as it moves toward the conclusion. Do trust Faulkner. If you pay attention, he pulls it together and you will discover why this novel is, in my opinion, the greatest American novel of the 20th century.

Absalom, Absalom.......2007-04-10

Absalom, Abasalom is high Faulkner. It looks into the themes that he usually covers: the South and racism and other types of evil and abnormality. The method of exposition is one Faulkner used before in The Sound and the Fury, but here Faulkner's use of multiple points of view and the stream of consciousness technique attains a more highly developed, indeed baroque, level. Faulkner drops the relevant details of the plot into the stream, usually with no great fanfare, so this book must be read closely even to understand the basic information of who did what. Discerning these details involves reading a lot of sentences like the following one and, occasionally, encountering a valuable clue:

"Or perhaps it is no lack of courage either: not cowardice that will not face that sickness somewhere at the prime foundation of this factual scheme from which the prisoner soul, miasmal-distillant, wroils ever upward sunward, tugs its tenuous prisoner arteries and veins and prisoning in its turn that spark, that dream which, as the globy and complete instant of its freedom mirrors and repeats (repeats? creates, reduces to a fragile evanescent iridescent sphere) all of space and time and massy earth, relicts the seething and miasmal mass which in all years of time has taught itself no boon of death but only how to recreate, renew; and dies, is gone, vanished: nothing- but is that true wisdom which can comprehend that there is a might-have-been which is more than truth, from which the dreamer, waking, says not `Did I dream?' but rather says, indicts high heaven's very self with `Why did I wake since waking I shall never sleep again?'"

This novel is art, even great art, but is it a good read? In my opinion, no. This is a book that really must be studied rather than read, preferably with pencil and paper at hand to keep track of the relationships between the characters. (Faulkner helpfully ends the book with a chronology and a list of characters. I discovered this too late and at any rate the chronology is not complete.) For me, the effort required to get through this book somewhat outweighed the rewards. Doubtless other readers would disagree.

Unreliable Narrators, Dated Anxieties, An Empire Collapses.......2007-03-05

ABSALOM, ABSOLOM! tells two intertwined stories. The first is the story of Thomas Sutpen, born a poor white in West Virginia, who creates a great estate through sheer determination and eventually becomes an elite in the Antebellum South. Through Sutpen, Faulkner once again explores the quest for money and respectability in the rich imaginary world of Yoknapatawpha County.

The second braid of this story is slavery and its historical repercussions. In this case, Sutpen, a slave owner and plantation master, fathers two mixed race children. Ultimately, it is Sutpen's unwillingness to treat a son with "black blood" as a man and equal that destroys what he has achieved. This son is the Absalom of the title.

To tell this story and explore these themes, Faulkner creates a series of unreliable narrators who have exaggerated views of Sutpen. One is Miss Rosa, who is outraged by his sexual unscrupulousness, as well as his ability to pull an empire from the wilderness. (Her own devout Methodist father was a failed businessman.)

Then, there are the highly rhetorical Mr. Compson and Shreve. Both of these narrators approach Sutpen with amazed and fascinated speculation. A modern parallel to their voices might be celebrity interviewers who wait outside the theater at the Oscars, savoring every detail about the stars. But if you don't share their obsession? Then, their hyper focus and passionate conjecture simply seem weird, and not a little pathetic.

For me, the amazed and obsessive speculation of these voices seemed out of proportion to the faults and actions of Thomas Sutpen. I think, in part, this shows that Faulkner's theme--race, miscegenation, and its historical consequences--are no longer viewed as cataclysmic threats to American society. This is a great and positive change from the Jim Crow climate in Oxford Mississippi in the 1930s, when Faulkner wrote and where defeated Confederate soldiers and freed slaves still lived.

This is not to say that we've become a race-blind society. But the concerns that animate Mr. Compson and Shreve--Interracial sex! We'll all have black ancestors in a thousand years!--no longer brew that muddled hysteria that energizes their narrative voices, especially that of Shreve.

In my opinion, this challenging book is Faulkner-for-professors. I still prefer THE HAMLET.

It is a masterpiece, though not easy to understand........2006-12-23

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. I "read" this book the first time in college in 1972. I recently reread the book after several attempts. The length of the sentences at first overwhelmed me. The first sentence in the book was 70 plus words long. It is a masterpiece. It is both troubling and satisfying. The level of literary intensity and imagination is extraordinary. Faulkner's gives a great look into the depths of the human heart. This is not an easy book to read and understand. The book teaches much on love. It also teaches much on hate. You see much about the racial struggle of that period. You also get an interesting view into the old southern United States. This book is not for everyone. It requires a great love of reading and concentration. If you read the Nobel and Pulitzer winners, this is a must read.

Reviewed and read by Jimmie A. Kepler.

Like 10,000 cheese cakes.......2006-12-07

Every sentence in this book is like a baroquely and exhaustively decorated slice of magically fortified cheesecake-Cheesecake so excruciatingly rich as to be nigh inedible (so rich in fact that it is inevitable that a slice must be regurgitated and re-eaten(often regurgitated and re-eaten, gagging, multiple times)-accounting for the bitter and bilous taste in the occasional one or two star bestowing readers mouth and review) but if you can stomach it- to stomach often necessitating that the reader push themself away from the table-also powerfully nourishing so that by the time you finish the book it is as though you have somehow eaten the titular ten thousand cheese cakes and are therefore full beyond comprehension but satisfied beyond comparison.

Falling Through Space: The Journals of Ellen Gilchrist (Banner Books)

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Falling Through Space: The Journals of Ellen Gilchrist (Banner Books)
Ellen Gilchrist
Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1578062918

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Delta Wedding
Southern Lit at its Best
We are most hospitably invited to the festivites.
Forgetting Delta Wedding
Alienation in a large family

Delta Wedding (A Harvest/Hbj Book)
Eudora Welty
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156252805

Book Description

A vivid and charming portrait of a large southern family, the Fairchilds, who live on a plantation in the Mississippi delta. The story, set in 1923, is exquisitely woven from the ordinary events of family life, centered around the visit of a young relative, Laura McRaven, and the family’s preparations for her cousin Dabney’s wedding.

Customer Reviews:

Delta Wedding.......2006-11-10

I had always wanted to read something by Eudora Welty, and this book cured me of that. What a confusing bunch of characters--one didn't know if they were white or black--young or old. The one bright spot in the book was her very descriptive language.

Southern Lit at its Best.......2006-10-31

Welty has a way with words that is unlike any other American author. Delta Wedding is one of those "typical" Welty books that delivers passages that you have to reread several times because they are so evocative of time, place or spirituality.

DW is set at Shellmound, the Fairchild's plantation in the Mississippi Delta, aka cotton country. Laura McRaven, a cousin to the Fairchilds' travels by train from Jackson to Fairchild and is both overwhelmed by her huge family of cousins, aunts and uncles, and lured to be accepted by them. Laura's mother had recently passed away, and she expects to be treated special as a result. Other than her first greeting by her Aunt Ellen (the matriarch of this enormous family) she is pretty much left to fend for herself. Sometimes this proves too much for her, but by the end of the novel it seems that Laura fits right in with the rest of the Fairchilds.

One theme in particular that I liked about the book is that of the view of the outsider. Laura is an outsider who both wants to be inside and remain outside. She likes her "special-ness" by being an orphan and not being part of the Fairchild clan, but she desperately wants to be part of something grand, and the Fairchilds seem like a good place to start. Ellen, who married Battle Fairchild, is from Virginia and is seen as snooty even though she is thoroughly in love with the people around her. Welty does such a wonderful job of showing someone who is so overwhelmed by her life that she can't seem to react with enthusiasm--it's as if she's a piece of drift wood in the Yazoo River. Then there is Troy Flavin who is the bride groom of the story. Not only is he from another part of Mississippi where there are hills, but he is the overseer for the plantation--he is doubly outside. He looks different than everyone else, too. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the world from Troy's perspective other than in the few statements he makes about his mother and her quilting.

I enjoyed reading DW, though I have to admit I wished it were a little shorter. I felt myself being overwhelmed by the huge cast of characters. I still don't know how many children Battle and Ellen have, and I found myself wondering who some minor characters were upon their reintroduction to the story. That said, Welty has such a talent for a turn of phrase or for the absurd, that I found myself laughing out loud and thoroughly enjoying this book.

We are most hospitably invited to the festivites........2005-08-09

Eudora Welty, winner of the National Medal for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize, paints a haunting, lyrical portrait of the enormous Fairchild clan at Shellmound - their rustically feudal cotton plantation in the 1920's Mississippi Delta.

The family has gathered for the wedding of Dabney, the second and prettiest daughter, (in her particular generation), and Troy Flavin, Shellmound's overseer, a ruddy-haired man who is totally unsuitable, in the eyes of various family members. However, nothing is expressed verbally to indicate their displeasure. Their attitudes, the way they live and treat each other, say it all.

It is late summer, and the festivities are underway in the semi-tropical heat which hangs heavy over the river and bayou. Nine year-old Laura McRaven, a cousin whose mother just died, arrives for the celebrations on a trial visit, of sorts, that will decide whether she is to become a permanent member of the clan, or be sent back to her non-Fairchild father in Jackson. The plot is a simple one, however, the novel's pattern of relationships are most complex. The characters' reveal themselves through their actions, conversations, soliloquies, and sometimes through the perceptions of young Laura, as they all deal with the issues which unite and divide them.

Welty's sensitive story vividly portrays the charm and customs of old Southern family gatherings of yesteryear, and explores the complexities and chaos associated with close-knit families. The author literally invites the reader, most hospitably, into Shellmound and beckons us to join the festivities.

"Delta Wedding" was Ms. Welty's first novel, published in 1946. While I thoroughly enjoyed "Delta Wedding," I do prefer Ms Welty's short stories to her novels.
JANA

Forgetting Delta Wedding.......2005-08-03

The only reason I completed this silly, disappointing novel was because I had just finished all of Welty's remarkable short stories and her flawless novella, "The Optimist's Daughter." It's as if a completely different author had written this superficial, fatuous novel. If you desire to read about 20 forgettable people in a seriously inbred family speaking at the same time about the impending wedding of one of their own, then this novel is for you. The only explanation for this work is that it came very early in Welty's career. I realize that others have defended this novel as revealing quintessential Southern dialogue and acute psychological tension in the characters. While the dialogue is clearly of the South, it is senseless, repetitive and tedious, and the characters dash madly in and out of the novel, without making any lasting impression on this reader. Instead, read Welty's short stories and "The Optimist's Daughter" and you will discover a totally different Welty: one whose fully realized characters and profound psychological insights will leave you with the enduring belief in her genius.

Alienation in a large family.......2005-05-14

When you see the title "Delta Wedding," please don't assume that Eudora Welty's novel is either a gaudy supermarket romance or a pollyanna tribute to nuptial celebration and Southern domesticity. It is about the events leading up to a wedding, and of course there is plenty of talk about dresses and cooking and dancing, but Welty, almost like Virginia Woolf's American counterpart, suffuses the atmosphere with mysterious psychological undercurrents and the foreboding aura of secrecy. We get the sense that there is more to these people's personalities than the text can convey, and we read on patiently and attentively, hoping to unravel the complexities.

The setting is the area of central Mississippi through which the Yazoo River flows, not far from Faulkner country geographically or literarily; much of the land in this particular locality is owned by a family named the Fairchilds, the dynastic centerpiece of the story. The prevalent symbol in the novel is a train called the Yellow Dog, the principal means of mass transportation that connects this part of Mississippi to the rest of the state. This is the train that brings nine-year-old Laura McRaven from Jackson to visit the Fairchilds, her cousins, on their plantation, where Dabney (that's a girl) Fairchild is engaged to be married within the week to a man twice her age named Troy Flavin.

It is also the train that, not long before the novel begins, nearly ran over Laura's uncle George as he tried to rescue his addled niece Maureen who had caught her foot in a trestle. George's wife Robbie had witnessed this near-accident and now is using it as an excuse to leave him--how could he be so selfish as to risk his life and widow her? Although this does not speak well of Robbie's character, the source of her discontent is really alienation. She knows that she is beneath George's station, and every instance in which he bonds with another Fairchild only affirms that the Fairchild mystique is a closed circle, impenetrable to her.

For a novel concerned about a wedding in the immediate present, it is deeply immersed in its characters' pasts. Laura is an only child whose mother has recently passed away, so this large house where she is surrounded by myriad cousins, aunts, and uncles, like legendary creatures whose fantastic world she has suddenly entered, is an awesome environment with a rich and intricate history. The Fairchilds are such a regional monument that the entire town cemetery is practically their very own mausoleum; Dr. Murdoch, the insensitive local physician, picks out future burial plots for Fairchilds as though he were deciding where to plant flowers in a garden.

One interesting characteristic of "Delta Wedding" is that, true to impressionistic storytelling, there is no traditional protagonist that I could identify. Laura receives much of the focus, but this is not really her story, nor is it narrated in her voice. Dabney is too shallow and spoiled to be a heroine; her older sister Shelley, a smarter and more serious girl, is not interested in being a heroine, and good for her. "Delta Wedding" does well without a hero because it is realistic fiction at its most crystalline; a sincere, authentic depiction of life in the rural deep South of the 1920s which shows a part of the country modernizing to the twentieth century even while clinging to the shadows of the past.

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Bloodroot
Tangled Family Tree
SHAKING THE FAMILY TREE
Nice change of pace
ENJOYED EVERY WORD

Bloodroot (China Bayles Mystery)
Susan Wittig Albert
Manufacturer: Berkley Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0425181901
Release Date: 2001-10-09

Book Description

In a starred review of Mistletoe Man, Publishers Weekly raved: "[Albert's] writing sparkles...a funny, human story." Now Albert presents her most stunning achievement to date. Set on a Mississippi plantation, Bloodroot is a vivid, haunting novel brimming with dangerous family secrets-and drenched in the enduring mysteries of the Deep South...

Customer Reviews:

Bloodroot.......2006-07-06

It was fun to learn about China's "roots'. Albert's character Ruby would have added to the story had she been present---lot's of supernatural stuff to explore.

Tangled Family Tree.......2006-03-29

This is the first Susan Wittig Albert book I've read. It is a southern tale about the tangled blood roots of the main character China Bayles. Some parts were predictable, but some were more surprising so it was an enjoyable book. The author does a great job weaving herbs and recipies into the story line. The audio version is well read by Julia Gibson.

SHAKING THE FAMILY TREE.......2006-02-13

BLOODROOT finds our heroine China Bayles abandoning the Pecan Creek familiars and going off to Mississippi to help out her ailing and possibly dying aunt. At the bequest of her mother, Letha, China reluctantly agrees to go especially when Letha says Aunt Tullie may be arrested. China finds out there's a lot of family history to be uncovered, including the strange dream she has about her aunt digging up a grave. Seems like wily Wiley Beauchamp, the aunt's plantation manager, has come up with a deed that says the land was given to the Beauchamps right after the Civil War and Tullie's plantation is his. Then Wiley vanishes and the mystery begins.
Albert focuses on characterization more than the actual mystery in this one, although she brings in a slew of suspects. China's relationship with her mother continues to strengthen and when the book is over, China has a whole new perspective on the importance of family and family history.
Not the best in this well done series; I missed Ruby and McQuaid, who only surface briefly, but it's a good one just the same.

Nice change of pace.......2004-09-29

In the previous books of the China Bayles Series, Susan Albert did a good job of using the lovely Hill Country of Texas as her setting. In this book she evokes the melancholy mood and slower pace of the Mississippi Delta and uses it to create a book about five generations of China's relatives and the tangled web of deceit which some of them wove. Without her usual supporting cast of husband, son, best friend, and other inhabitants of Pecan Springs, China goes to the Mississippi plantation of her ancestors to help her mother Leatha to care for her sickly Aunt Tullie. There has been a death, and Leatha is afraid that the old woman is somehow involved. When China investigates the murder, she finds more than she bargains for and begins uncovering long-hidden secrets of her family. Before she is through she discovers forbidden love affairs, illegitimate children, suicide, murder, and many betrayals by family members. This is a nice change of pace for this series and it shows that Albert can write about a variety of settings with continued high quality in her writing.

ENJOYED EVERY WORD.......2004-09-19

A wonderful read here. Not only do we get a very interesting plot, but a lot of good trivia also. Very good character developement along with a very smooth syntax makes the entire book a joy to read. I am not a big mystry fan, but this certainly could turn me into one. I was also quite impressed with the research which apprently went into this book. Being a gatherer of facts, I found the information in the book to be quite factual and as I said, informative. Thank you Ms Albert!

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5 stars but there's more to the story....
I didn't like this book
The ending needs rewriting
There's something missing
Very slow beginning but well worth it...

Come Love a Stranger
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0380976951

Amazon.com

When pirates overrun his paddleboat and his new bride Lierin is tossed into the dangerous river, Ashton Wingate is sure he has lost her forever. Three years later, Ashton's carriage collides with a rider, and he is certain that the unconscious beauty is his lost wife. But when the woman revives, she remembers nothing but faint memories of a dark and murderous night, and feels only trepidation in the arms of her so-called husband.

Willing to remain with him until she recovers, Lierin soon finds generous comfort in Ashton's care. Though her memories remain elusive, she and Ashton forge a relationship of deep passion and love. Then Malcolm Sinclair arrives and claims that Lierin is actually his wife Lenore, Lierin's twin sister. Lierin must admit that she has memories of Malcolm, though Ashton vows to never lose her again. Tensions flare between the men, and the growing danger seems frighteningly familiar to her. Will Lierin and Ashton be able to uncover the secrets of the past in time to secure a future together?

First published in 1983, Come Love a Stranger has remained a favorite among Woodiwiss fans for good reasons. Set in the South in the 1830s and dappled with well-formed characters, this book is fresh and entertaining on every page. Touches such as a burning madhouse, a melodramatic ex-girlfriend, and a deliciously malevolent villain make for a great read. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien

Book Description

LIERIN

With no name and no memory, she awakens from a nightmare of madness into the lives of two

stranger. One she desires, one she fears--but both have claimed her heart.

To handsome plantation owner Ashton Wingate, she is Lierin--the cherished bride cruelly stolen

from him by capricious Fate. The other calls her Lenore--entangling the lost, tormented beauty in

his sinister web of perilous deceit. But it is in the adoring arms of noble Ashton that her true destiny

awaits--as they join together to unlock the mysteries of a shadowed past. . .and to rekindle the flames of a glorious love once vanished but never forgotten.

Download Description

When Ashton Wingate's enchanting bride Lierin was swallowed by a roaring river, he thought she was lost forever. Until he crashes into a woman with no memory, who looks exactly like his loving bride. When dark and dangerous Malcolm Sinclair comes to claim the woman as his wife Ashton will risk any peril to preserve their newfound passion. A woman with no name and no memory...The two men who claim her:one with love, the other with fear...A dazzling tale of secret passions--and a love tragically lost and miraculously reborn--by the incomparable storyteller. ere days after Ashton Wingate's wedding to the enchanting Lierin, capricious Fate stole the Mississippi plantation owner's beloved from him. Now, three years later, his carriage has collided with a cloaked rider on horseback: a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the young bride who was swallowed up by the merciless river

Customer Reviews:

5 stars but there's more to the story...........2006-11-18

I really enjoyed aspects of this book, as I do all of Kathleen Woodiwiss (at least ones I have read thus far and that is about 6 of them) but I felt there were some missed opportunities here to make a good book a great book. Believe me, I am a big KW fan, but this book seemed rushed and slow at the same time if that is possible! The resolution at the end was a little too neat and sort of confused me. And, what annoys me about KW at times is that lots and LOTS of peripheral characters are introduced and flutter in and out of the story like hummingbirds. Why bother? Bitchy Marelda could have been a GREAT villainess but she is painfully underused and frankly was the only interesting character in the beginning which moves too slow. Then she leaves and comes back intermittently and that is too bad. I wish KW would write a book about Marelda! What fun that would be! The hero and heroine here are, as always, incredibly beautiful and we have to hear about that constantly, but I felt like their chemistry was like walking into a movie that had already started at times. KW can create an atmosphere full of suspense and adventure that I love and once you get into this book, you won't be able to put it down Not disappointing by any means but this could have been much sharper than as it stands.

I didn't like this book.......2006-01-23

This is the second Kathleen Woodiwess I've read that I didn't like because I couldn't get into the story.The whole amnesia confused identity thing dragged on far too long as far as I was concerned by the end I didn't care if she was Lierin or Lenore.I just wanted her to remember so they could move on with their lives.The story was way too long.I liked all her other books except Ashes in the wind.This one was not well written.

The ending needs rewriting.......2005-06-15

Ashton Wingate is a wealthy plantation owner in Mississippi. With his good looks and fortune, he had his choice of women but none was able to capture his heart like Lierin. He knew that he had met the woman of his dreams and so married her after a very brief courtship. On their honeymoon aboard one of Ashton's boats, the River Witch, with the ink on their marriage papers barely dry, they were attacked by river pirates and his wife of merely a few days was thrown overboard never to be seen again, leaving Ashton a widower.

Fast forward to three years and we see Ashton in a carriage on his way home to Belle Chene. Deep in thoughts, he is startled by the sound of a woman's scream. Thrown off her horse, Ashton immediately jumps out to her rescue and takes the unconscious woman to the safety of his home. But when moonlight frames her face, he is shocked for right in his very arms is the face of the woman who has haunted his dreams for the last three years - his beloved wife Lierin. Unfortunately, the woman wakes up with no memory whatsoever of her past or identity. But in his heart, Ashton knows that she is Lierin. And when fate once again threatens to tear them apart when Malcolm Sinclair turns up and claim her as his abducted wife Lenore, Ashton vows to fight for her no matter what.

What follows is a series of confusion and heartbreak for Ashton and Lierin. Although Ashton's heart tells him that the woman is his dear wife, mounting evidence seem to prove that the woman is indeed Lenore, Lierin's twin sister. For her, as much as it pains her to leave the kind and gentle stranger who has managed to convince her that she is Lierin and whom she has fallen in love with, she knows that she must uncover the truth about herself and whom she's really married to. Sadly, things seem to favor Malcolm's side of the story, especially when the man who claims to be her own father refutes Ashton's claims.

COME LOVE A STRANGER is an exciting story filled with deceit and mystery. As usual, Kathleen Woodiwiss shows her flare for storytelling with her vivid descriptions of each scenes and portrayal of her characters. I absolutely loved Ashton! His tenderness towards Lierin, his patience and undying devotion is simply adorable. I enjoyed their playfulness toward each other and those scenes made me smile. And when Lierin was taken away from him again, I really felt his grief and couldn't wait for the truth to come out. But personally, if I were the heroine, I would have gone back to Ashton immediately after seeing him come out of the sea wearing nothing but that loincloth!

What's good about this is the mystery. It is well-plotted and I actually found myself confused and unable to figure out whether the woman is actually Lierin or Lenore, adding further to the suspense. My biggest gripe though is the ending. I closed the book rather dissatisfied, feeling as if the author has reached her word count and therefore decided to rush the ending. Overall, I thought that this book was good.

There's something missing.......2004-11-09

I typically enjoy Woodiwiss novels but this one left me with a big question mark in my mind. The beginning of the book dragged on while the end came up so quickly that I felt like I must have missed something.

And there was some logic missing in the plot. She has no memory of who she is, yet she goes with two complete strangers, leaving behind the man she has come to love and "trust" over recent weeks. She claims she's trying to find out who she is, but willingly takes up residence with those two strangers, and assumes the name of her sister.

This story isn't one of Kathleen Woodiwiss' best.

Very slow beginning but well worth it..........2004-06-30

At first I didn't think I would ever get into the book but after a long, slow wait I finally did & then I couldn't put the book down. To be honest it was about 150 pages before I was so into it that I hated to shut the book. The beginning was just very slow & kinda boring but I'm glad I didn't give up on it. I was truly confused as to who the woman was & I usually solve things pretty quickly but not the case with this book. The author gave just the right amount of clues to keep you guessing until the very end. I felt so giddy for her & Ashton when they found times to be together. It seemed to me that they were young lovers who were trying to be held apart by just about everybody but they weren't going to let anything or anybody stand in their way. It was so much fun for me to see their playful love for one another & to watch her find her identity. You just gotta love this book.

Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia

Average customer rating:

bad bad history
What a story!
What a story!
Forgotten History --- Why It Matters!
Very Interesting Story

Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia
Alan Huffman
Manufacturer: Gotham
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1592400442
Release Date: 2004-01-22

Amazon.com

For most Americans, Liberia is a remote place in a distant continent with no connection to their daily lives. Few of us know that in the early 19th century, it was, in fact, an American colony, and to this day, contains communities called Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland founded by freed American slaves and populated by descendants of those slaves. Author Alan Huffman tells this story in his remarkable Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today. The book begins as the author's attempt to flush out the details of a fascinating Mississippi family story about a prominent plantation owner's (Isaac Ross) desire to repatriate his slaves in Africa, but ends up being a complex and sensitive exploration of the legacy of slavery in the American South and Liberia. As Huffman traces Ross' descendants and those of his family's repatriated slaves, an intricate story of displacement, cultural identity, immigration, oppression, and racial politics unfolds. Ironically, when America's freed slaves immigrated to Africa, they brought with them the only social paradigm they knew, that of the Southern plantation. Overcoming severe hardship, they recreated that culture, and by the time Liberia became Africa's first independent republic in 1847, the minority American settlers had become the country's ruling class. Huffman adeptly shows how this legacy contributes to the current crisis in Liberia.

Mississippi in Africa is at once historical and contemporary, personal and universal, local and global. As Huffman indicates, slavery "has existed throughout Africa's recorded history, and still has not entirely passed from the scene." Its pernicious consequences continue to affect the lives of millions caught in the devastating and endless civil war in Liberia, just as they continue to impact American life. Yet, Huffman repeatedly shows that this extraordinary story cannot be simply reduced to a polemical rendering of white oppression of blacks. It is so much more about the powerful versus the powerless. Thus, Huffman presents the subtleties that have shaped both the politics and human relations in this story with profound humanity and nuance. --Silvana Tropea

Book Description

The gripping story of two hundred freed Mississippi slaves who sailed to Liberia to build a new colony—where the colonists' repression of the native tribes would beget a tragic cycle of violence.

When a wealthy Mississippi cotton planter named Isaac Ross died in 1836, his will decreed that his plantation, Prospect Hill, should be liquidated and the proceeds from the sale be used to pay for his slaves' passage to the newly established colony of Liberia in western Africa. Ross's heirs contested the will for more than a decade in the state courts and legislature—prompting a deadly revolt in which a group of slaves burned Ross's mansion to the ground—but the will was ultimately upheld. The slaves then emigrated to their new home, where they battled the local tribes and built vast plantations with Greek Revival mansions in a region the Americo-Africans renamed “Mississippi in Africa.” The seeds of resentment sown over a century of cultural conflict between the colonists and tribal peoples would explode in the late twentieth century, begetting a civil war that rages in Liberia to this day.

In the award-winning tradition of Slaves in the Family, this enthralling work traces an epic legacy that sweeps from the slave quarters of the antebellum South to the war-ravaged streets of modern-day Monrovia. Tracking down Prospect Hill's living descendants, deciphering a history ruled by rumor, and delivering the complete chronicle in riveting prose, journalist Alan Huffman has rescued a lost chapter of American history whose aftermath is far from over.

Customer Reviews:

bad bad history.......2006-07-28

This is a compelling story, but it's full of inference and excessively fluffy. From a historian's perspective Huffman does not have enough evidence to be legitimate. If you're looking for a real history of either Mississippi or West Africa (my two areas of expertise) look elsewhere.

What a story!.......2006-03-15

Huffman takes readers through quite a journey as he gives the history of abolitionists in Mississippi and the ultimate return of blacks to Africa. His story is fascinating and I simply couldn't put down the book until I read every page.

What a story!.......2005-05-03

A 20th century Missisipian explores how the actions of a few slaveholders before the Civil war have affected modern history. A very good read.

Forgotten History --- Why It Matters!.......2004-09-23

Alan Huffman's book on the history of a group of freed slaves, their journey back to Africa and the modern story of Liberia is important and very interesting. Huffman gives us (1) a view of life and history that formed our society and culture in Mississippi, (2) provides an overview of Liberia's history and our connection to it (a chapter of US history that is seldom mentioned ... I never heard of Liberia and the US role in its founding before arriving in West Africa in 1978), and (3) shows that Faulkner was right in saying that the past continues to impact us.

In 1978 I went to Guinea Bissau,West Africa, to work on a USAID (foreign aid) program in the country's rice growing region. It was there that I heard, for the first time, of a group of freed slaves returning to Africa and establishing a country, Liberia, in 1821 with it's capital named after the fifth US president James Monroe. By 1838, 20,000 American blacks (ex-slaves and freed men --- including the slave group from Jefferson County that was the subject of his research) made up the population of the Colonization Society and Liberia. Today the descendants of these settlers make up about 5 percent of Liberia's population. This elite group dominated the political and economic sectors for more that 150 years. A backlash against this group in 1980 by descendants of local tribesmen caused the chaos that grips modern day Liberia. It's important to me and you today because of the potential links that states in chaos have to terrorist groups (Huffman talks of the potential laundering of Al Queda money through diamond sales in Liberia and the attempt to use the country as a conduit for the purchase of illegal arms --- including stinger missles).

Huffman brings the reader full circle and gives interesting details of his research and the people he meets along the way. He also provides details on our Mississippi history about slave and slaveholder interaction and the cultural values it imprinted on our society. I also liked the tidbits of history like the origin of Alcorn State University (evolving from a school for the sons of plantation owners to the first land grant college in the United States). This is a good book that I highly recommend.

Very Interesting Story.......2004-07-21

What a great story. This book covers so many subjects in a complete and interesting way. There is the detective story of the slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and their lives, a story of the current state of affairs in southern Mississippi and finally a gripping account of modern day Liberia and its turbulent history. Just a great story that I wished would go on longer.

Tumult and Silence at Second Creek: An Inquiry Into a Civil War Slave Conspiracy

Average customer rating:

Amazing history

Tumult and Silence at Second Creek: An Inquiry Into a Civil War Slave Conspiracy
Winthrop D. Jordan
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0807120391

Book Description

In 1861 a group of slaves in Adams County, Mississippi, conspired to gain their freedom by overwhelming their masters. The conspiracy was discovered and more than thirty slaves in and around Natchez were hanged and several were whipped to death. In 1971 Winthrop D. Jordan came across the previously unanalyzed transcript of the testimony of some of the conspiring slaves. This book is an exhaustive analysis of his findings.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing history.......1999-12-13

After taking an amazing class with Dr. Jordan, who is just as good of a teacher as he is a writer, I decided to take a look at his well-known book. It is truly one of the great pieces of historical writing I have read, as he is able to pull together a complete story based upon references from a single document. While he's talking about this single event, he gives great insight into the mind of an historian that will inspire any student of history into delving deeper into practically any subject.

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Joseph E. Davis Revisited

Joseph E. Davis: Pioneer Patriarch
Janet Sharp Hermann
Manufacturer: Univ Pr of Mississippi (Txt)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Book Description

In this biography of Joseph E. Davis, elder brother of and adviser to Jefferson Davis, award-winning author Janet Sharp Hermann provides a fascinating instrument through which to observe nearly a century of American history, from the Revolution and the War of 1812 through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Through his brother's influence and through his own ingenuity Davis encountered many who were prominent in the history of nineteenth-century America, including U.S. presidents, politicians, Confederate generals, and important figures of the antebellum and postwar South. The prism of Joseph E. Davis's life offers a vibrant portrait of an incredible century.

Customer Reviews:

Joseph E. Davis Revisited.......2002-02-26

Janet Sharp Hermann has done a magnificent job of portraying this giant of a man. It is a spellbound account of a time and a place now almost forgotten. Her scholarship and research talents are made plain by the way she brings out the nature of Joseph E. Davis and his relationship with his family and especially his servants. His forbearance and high-spirited way of coping with the adversity he faced over the destruction of his property during the Civil War and the after-years were inspiring.

Average customer rating:

Plantation Life: On the Mississippi
William Edwards Clement , and Stuart Omer, Jr. Landry
Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1565544366

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