[Review of The Conjure Woman]

THAT CONJURE WOMAN. By Charles W. Chesnutt. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25.–It would be a mistake for any reader to let the negro dialect, with which most of these pages are filled, deter him from beginning it. Once begun, he will read it to the end, however inveterate may be his prejudice against dialect tales. Uncle Julius, the story-teller, is even more shrewd than Uncle Remus, and quite as original. All the stories hinge on some negro superstition, occasionally suggesting a dark and tragic origin, despite their abounding humor and accompanying touches of pathos. They are like none of the other negro stories with which we are familiar, and take an exceptionally high place both as a study of race characteristics and for genuine dramatic interest.