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Studies in 'Local Color' and Dialect

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  • Source Text: Anonymous, "Studies in 'Local Color' and Dialect," New York Tribune Illustrated Supplement 58 (April 2, 1899): 35.

STUDIES IN 'LOCAL COLOR' AND DIALECT.

THE CONJURE WOMAN. By Charles W. Chesnutt. Duodecimo, pp. 229. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

Mr. Chesnutt introduces a great deal of negro dialect into "The Conjure Woman," and negro dialect is so often a weariness to the flesh that it requires patience to get well started in the reading of his book. The patience is rewarded. Uncle Julius McAdoo, the ancient negro from whose lips fall astounding yarns, is not, after all, obscure in his dialect, and he is himself a pleasing character, compounded of simplicity and shrewdness. The later quality is deftly used by Mr. Chesnutt in winding up the daring inventions set forth by Julius, so that their improbability is somehow softened and excused. Amazement at the recklessness of the negro imagination gives place to a quiet smile over the old fellow's wit in using his legends to gain his own ends. A gentle humor lurks in "The Conjure Woman" and we welcome the book as a minor but amusing performance.

  • Cite (Chicago style): Anonymous, "Studies in 'Local Color' and Dialect," The Charles W. Chesnutt Archive, Gen. Ed. Stephanie P. Browner, Matt Cohen, and Kenneth M. Price, accessed April 19, 2024. https://chesnuttarchive.org/item/ccda.rev00078.
  • Source File: ccda.rev00078.xml
  • Document ID: ccda.rev00078
  • Rights information: The base text of the original item is in the public domain. The text encoding and editorial notes were created and/or prepared by the Charles W. Chesnutt Archive and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Any reuse of the material should credit the Charles W. Chesnutt Archive. [License]
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