[Review of The Conjure Woman]

"THE CONJURE WOMAN," By Charles W. Chestnutt. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, publishers.

Each of the seven bright stories which form the contents of the publication under review deals charmingly with certain phases of southern life from the standpoint of northern authorship. Mr. Chestnutt was formerly engaged in cultivating grapes in Ohio, but on account of his wife's health which required some change of climate, he purchased one of the old-time plantations of North Carolina and immediately resumed business thereon. Each of the old-time plantations in this part of the country possesses its own peculiar stock of legends in addition to those which are more general in character, and from conversations carried on with the negroes Mr. Chestnutt obtained the material which he so delightfully puts into narrative form. Of course there are crudities and mannerisms in the style of the writer which plainly show that the work is not of typically southern authorship, but still the portrayals which the writer gives of southern life in some of its aspects are so thoroughly faithful that every one who reads the work will certainly want to hear from Mr. Chestnutt again.