The Grandissimes

by Cable, George Washington

• ISBN13: 9781565549012
• ISBN10: 1565549015
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Pelican Pub Co Inc

Summary

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.

Author Biography

One of the greatest and most celebrated Southern writers of his day, George Washington Cable (1844-1925) helped lead the Local Color movement of the late 1800s with his pioneering use of dialect and his skill with the short-story form. A Southern reformist, Cable faithfully depicted the Creole way of life during the transitional post-Civil War period

Table of Contents

Masked Batteries	1	(10)
The Fate of the Immigrant	11	(9)
``And who is my Neighbor?''	20	(3)
Family Trees	23	(11)
A Maiden who will not Marry	34	(7)
Lost Opportunities	41	(5)
Was it Honore Grandissime?	46	(9)
Signed --- Honore Grandissime	55	(3)
Illustrating the Tractive Power of Basil	58	(9)
``Oo dad is, `Sieur Frowenfel'?''	67	(5)
Sudden Flashes of Light	72	(4)
The Philosophe	76	(7)
A Call from the Rent-Spectre	83	(11)
Before Sunset	94	(10)
Rolled in the Dust	104	(19)
Starlight in the rue Chartres	123	(5)
That Night	128	(15)
New Light upon Dark Places	143	(13)
Art and Commerce	156	(10)
A very Natural Mistake	166	(11)
Doctor Keene Recovers his Bullet	177	(4)
Wars within the Breast	181	(6)
Frowenfeld Keeps his Appointment	187	(5)
Frowenfeld Makes an Argument	192	(12)
Aurora as a Historian	204	(4)
A Ride and a Rescue	208	(13)
The Fete de Grandpere	221	(19)
The Story of Bras-Coupe	240	(22)
The Story of Bras-Coupe, Continued	262	(19)
Paralysis	281	(7)
Another Wound in a New Place	288	(5)
Interrupted Preliminaries	293	(3)
Unkindest Cut of All	296	(3)
Clotilde as a Surgeon	299	(6)
``Fo' wad you Cryne?''	305	(5)
Aurora's Last Picayune	310	(6)
Honore Makes some Confessions	316	(9)
Tests of Friendship	325	(12)
Louisiana States her Wants	337	(6)
Frowenfeld Finds Sylvestre	343	(9)
To Come to the Point	352	(9)
An Inheritance of Wrong	361	(8)
The Eagle Visits the Doves in their Nest	369	(15)
Bad for Charlie Keene	384	(2)
More Reparation	386	(4)
The Pique-en-terre Loses One of her Crew	390	(11)
The News	401	(2)
An Indignant Family and a Smashed Shop	403	(11)
Over the New Store	414	(5)
A Proposal of Marriage	419	(7)
Business Changes	426	(5)
Love Lies-a-Bleeding	431	(7)
Frowenfeld at the Grandissime Mansion	438	(8)
``Cauldron Bubble''	446	(3)
Caught	449	(8)
Blood for a B low	457	(7)
Voudou Cured	464	(6)
Dying Words	470	(7)
Where some Creole Money Goes	477	(4)
``All Right''	481	(5)
``No!''	486