Charles W. Chesnutt's novel, The Colonel's Dream, is the story of a Southern man who, retiring after a successful business career in the North, returns to his native town for a visit, becomes interested in its possibilities and attempts to use his means and his practical knowledge for its development. His reception, his popularity, his failure and his disgusted abandoning of his project are told with quiet appreciation of both sides of the significant little drama. This book is entertaining and most acceptably free from sensationalism.