The House Behind the Cedars (1900) is African-American writer Charles Chesnutt’s debut novel. Inspired by his own experience as a Black man capable of passing for white―which Chesnutt consciously chose not to do―as well as by Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, The House Behind the Cedars explores themes of identity, race, and class in the post-Civil War South.
Controversial for its portrayal of interracial romance, Chesnutt’s novel was critically acclaimed in its day, but failed financially. It was adapted into a 1927 silent film by pioneering Black director Oscar Micheaux.
After years of living in the city, John Warwick visits his hometown to see his mother and sister. Hearing of his success as a lawyer and father, Rena, his sister, is intrigued with city life and decides to join him when he returns. With a black mother and white father, the two are able to pass for white, which allows them―Rena soon discovers―a certain amount of social mobility in the South. It being only a few years after the Civil War, there is of course some risk to this, but the opportunity is too enticing to pass up. Rena soon meets George, a wealthy white man and business partner of her brother, and the two fall in love. When she is called home to care for her sick mother, and as George begins to grow suspicious, it becomes more and more difficult to keep her secret―and her family―safe.
This edition of Charles Chesnutt’s The House Behind the Cedars is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.
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Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was an African American author, lawyer, and political activist. Born in Cleveland to a family of “free persons of color” from North Carolina, Chesnutt spent his youth in Ohio before returning to the South after the Civil War. As a teenager, he worked as a teacher at a local school for Black students and eventually became principal at a college established in Fayetteville for the purpose of training Black teachers. Chesnutt married Susan Perry―with whom he had four daughters―in 1878 and moved to New York City for a short time before settling in Cleveland, where he studied law and passed the bar exam in 1887. His story “The Goophered Grapevine,” published the same year, was the first story by an African American to appear in The Atlantic. Back in Ohio, Chesnutt started the court stenography business that would earn him the financial stability to pursue a career as a writer. He wrote several collections of short stories, including The Conjure Woman (1899) and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color-Line (1899), both of which explore themes of race in America and African American identity as well as employ African American Vernacular English. Chesnutt was also an active member of the NAACP throughout his life, writing for its magazine The Crisis, serving on its General Committee, and working with such figures as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.
