The Colonel's Dream

This is a fascinating novel. It is written in a readable style and it keeps your interest with many plot twists and turns. My daughter loaned it to me to read as it was one of the books covered in her college Interpretation of Fiction class. It was so far ahead of its time and progressive and the au......more

I discovered this author and book by going through the most recent works of fiction available in audio on the Librivox site, and happened to pick this one, based on a personal interest in the workings and abuses of power and social inequalities. I had no idea there was such an outstanding work on the......more

This one started out as a Utopian ideal much like other progressive books of the early 20th century. The Colonel is almost unbelievably upright and honest, but likable. Going to the post-reconstruction South creates in him a desire to better the lives of the people in his hometown. He has the means......more

This 1905 novel by the black writer Charles W. Chesnutt should be more widely read. It touches on themes and aspects of Southern history that have not appeared in many works of fiction, or very much in history. More on one of those issues in a moment. The main character of the novel is a white, ex-pl......more

This book is engrossing, but appears to be very naive and simplistic in its approach to Reconstruction after the Civil War, the poison of white supremacy, and the feckless attitude of the blacks themselves, resigned to whatever is dished out by the white men. Col. French, a Southern gentleman who has......more