The Grandissimes: A Novel / Edition 1

by George Washington Cable

Overview

Set in the mysterious shadowed city of New Orleans in the years immediately following the Louisiana Purchase, George Washington Cable's classic novel of the Old South traces the declining fortunes of a family and their society as they struggle with long-standing divisions of race and class and with the ideals of democracy and liberty imposed by their new American rulers.

The hero of the novel, Joseph Frowenfeld, is a young scientist who moves to Louisiana to make his fortune. An outsider, Frowenfeld learns the ways of the Creoles and of the few Americans in the city through his acquaintance with the proud Grandissime family. He comes to know Honore Grandissime, the young leader of the clan, as well as his half-brother, a prosperous free man of color also named Honore, who has the power to rescue his relations from financial ruin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820310206
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	08/01/1988
Series:	Brown Thrasher Books Series
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.12(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

GEORGE WASHINGTON CABLE was born in New Orleans in 1844. Often considered the South's first modern writer, he wrote many books, including Old Creole Days; Dr. Sevier; John Marsh, Southerner; Bonaventure; and The Cavalier.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CABLE was born in New Orleans in 1844. Often considered the South's first modern writer, he wrote many books, including Old Creole Days; Dr. Sevier; John Marsh, Southerner; Bonaventure; and The Cavalier.

Table of Contents

I.	Masked Batteries	1
II.	The Fate of the Immigrant	11
III.	"And who is my Neighbor?"	20
IV.	Family Trees	23
V.	A Maiden who will not Marry	34
VI.	Lost Opportunities	41
VII.	Was it Honore Grandissime?	46
VIII.	Signed--Honore Grandissime	55
IX.	Illustrating the Tractive Power of Basil	58
X.	"Oo dad is, 'Sieur Frowenfel'?"	67
XI.	Sudden Flashes of Light	72
XII.	The Philosophe	76
XIII.	A Call from the Rent-Spectre	83
XIV.	Before Sunset	94
XV.	Rolled in the Dust	104
XVI.	Starlight in the rue Chartres	123
XVII.	That Night	128
XVIII.	New Light upon Dark Places	143
XIX.	Art and Commerce	156
XX.	A very Natural Mistake	166
XXI.	Doctor Keene Recovers his Bullet	177
XXII.	Wars within the Breast	181
XXIII.	Frowenfeld Keeps his Appointment	187
XXIV.	Frowenfeld Makes an Argument	192
XXV.	Aurora as a Historian	204
XXVI.	A Ride and a Rescue	208
XXVII.	The Fete de Grandpere	221
XXVIII.	The Story of Bras-Coupe	240
XXIX.	The Story of Bras-Coupe, Continued	262
XXX.	Paralysis	281
XXXI.	Another Wound in a New Place	288
XXXII.	Interrupted Preliminaries	293
XXXIII.	Unkindest Cut of All	296
XXXIV.	Clotilde as a Surgeon	299
XXXV.	"Fo' wad you Cryne?"	305
XXXVI.	Aurora's Last Picayune	310
XXXVII.	Honore Makes some Confessions	316
XXXVIII.	Tests of Friendship	325
XXXIX.	Louisiana States her Wants	337
XL.	Frowenfeld Finds Sylvestre	343
XLI.	To Come to the Point	352
XLII.	An Inheritance of Wrong	361
XLIII.	The Eagle Visits the Doves in their Nest	369
XLIV.	Bad for Charlie Keene	384
XLV.	More Reparation	386
XLVI.	The Pique-en-terre Loses One of her Crew	390
XLVII.	The News	401
XLVIII.	An Indignant Family and a Smashed Shop	403
XLIX.	Over the New Store	414
L.	A Proposal of Marriage	419
LI.	Business Changes	426
LII.	Love Lies-a-Bleeding	431
LIII.	Frowenfeld at the Grandissime Mansion	438
LIV.	"Cauldron Bubble"	446
LV.	Caught	449
LVI.	Blood for a Blow	457
LVII.	Voudou Cured	464
LVIII.	Dying Words	470
LIX.	Where some Creole Money Goes	477
LX.	"All Right"	481
LXI.	"No!"	486
	Photogravures
	"They paused a little within the obscurity of the corridor, and just to reassure themselves that everything was 'all right'"
	"She looked upon an unmasked, noble countenance, lifted her own mask a little, and then a little more; and then shut it quickly"	10
	"The daughter of the Natchez sitting in majesty, clothed in many-colored robes of shining feathers crossed and recrossed with girdles of serpent-skins and of wampum"	11
	"Aurora,--alas! alas!--went down upon her knees with her gaze fixed upon the candle's flame"	102
	"The young man with auburn curls rested the edge of his burden upon the counter, tore away its wrappings and disclosed a painting"	103