[Review of The Conjure Woman]

The Conjure Woman, By Charles W. Chesnutt. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

These stories are very nearly worthy to have been written by the creator of "Uncle Remus." Mr. Chesnutt is we presume, a Northern man, who has lived in North Carolina for a number of years, and he has caught very successfully both the Negro dialect and (a more difficult thing still) the peculiar mystical and superstitious characteristics of the negro mind. Uncle Julius's stories of "The Conjure Woman" have a unique quality of mingled humor, pathos and mysticism about them which makes them singularly impressive. The old negro himself is very dramatically presented, and is a thoroughly vital figure. The comparison with Mr. Harris's stories is, of course, inevitable, and will occur at once to every reader, but the fact that these tales stand the comparison so well is the best possible proof of their merit.