The Conjure Woman (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Charles W. Chesnutt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ann Arbor Paperbacks | Publication Date: August 15, 1969

First published in 1899, these folk tales within a tale provide commentary on the social attitudes of the period

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) was a lawyer and distinguished writer of fiction whose books include The House Behind the Cedars, The Marrow of Tradition, and The Colonel's Dream. He received the Spingarn gold medal for his pioneering work depicting the struggles of black Americans.
William Andrews is the author of To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865, and the editor of Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the 19th Century and Three Classic African-American Novels. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (August 15, 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472061569
• ISBN-13: 978-0472061563
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful story and an important work of literature, April 19, 2000

By 

Kristen Beck (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Conjure Woman (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Charles Chestnutt's A Conjure Woman is a collection of short stories told by a former slave named Julius to a White couple who have recently moved to the South. Written at the turn of the century, Chestnutt was addressing a primarily White audience who were recovering from Reconstruction and were fond of plantation-style literature which looked upon slavery with nostalgia. On the surface, the author seems to be catering to the nostalgic pre-Civil War idea, but in actuality, Julius' stories have a much deeper moral which reveal a harsh and terrible way of life for Blacks of the time. Mixed with elements of magic and conjuring, Julius' seems to be telling fanciful fairy tales, but with a closer look, one realizes that Chestnutt has no fondness or nostalgia for the times of slavery. This is a well-written and thought-provoking book and it is an important novel of America's history.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "General Books LLC" is a Misleading Scam, not a proper publisher., April 26, 2010

By 

M. Richardson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Conjure Woman (Paperback)

N.B.: The 1-star applies to this edition, not to "The Conjure Woman," which is one of the best books to have emerged from the 1890s. And if I could give 0 stars to General Books LLC editions, or negative stars, I would.

Buyer beware: All "books" published by General Books LLC are not really "books" at all. They are automatically (and very badly) produced via OCR software from digital scans of old public domain editions. On nearly every page you will find egregious, ridiculous misprints, and flat-out gibberish, with the result that the "book" is unreadable. (That's why when you click the "Look Inside" feature above, you'll actually be redirected to a "real" edition of the book. General Books LLC doesn't want you to see their product until you buy it, because they know that if you see it, you won't buy it.) In fact, as General Books LLC all but admits, the things they sell here on Amazon are actually marketing devices designed to induce the unwary to subscribe to a service they do not need. Charging [...] for this thing is a scandal.

Read closely the disclaimer that General Books LLC adds to the page for this so-called edition: "The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: African Americans; Southern States; American fiction/ Afro-American authors; Short stories; African Americans Southern States Fiction; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / General; Literary Criticism / American / General; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies; Fiction / Action."

"Without charge" is misleading, to put it mildly. Open the front cover of a book produced by General Books LLC and you will find yet another disclaimer: "Could you please forgive any spelling mistakes, missing or extraneous characters...?" Then you are directed to the company's web-site, which asks for your credit card or PayPal information to begin, at the rate of [...] per month, a "subscription" to books that are freely available in the public domain. Which means you can get them for free at web-sites like Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and Google Books.

For example, drop this URL into your browser and you will be taken to a freely downloadable copy of the first edition of "The Conjure Woman" (1899):

[...]

Incidentally, I know all this because my university accidentally ordered this ridiculous product instead of the scholarly edition I had specified for use in my classes (I am a professor of American literature).

Amazon, in my opinion, should not allow companies like this one to sell their products.

4.0 out of 5 stars African-American folktales, May 31, 2010

By 

zwandy (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Conjure Woman (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Another class-forced foray into American literature, which is not my usual territory. This is a really interesting book by an almost more interesting author, that raises really great questions about American race issues, what knowledge is, what can be considered truth, and what it means to believe in folktales.