{"product_id":"paul-marchand-f-m-c-9781578067985","title":"Paul Marchand, F. M. C.","description":"Chesnutt wrote this novel at the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, but set it in a time and place favored by George Washington Cable. Published now for the first time, \u003ci\u003ePaul Marchand, F. M. C.\u003c\/i\u003e examines the system of race and caste in nineteenth-century New Orleans. Chesnutt reacts, as well, against the traditional stance that fiction by leading American writers of the previous generation had taken on the issue of miscegenation. After living for many years in France, the wealthy and sophisticated Paul Marchand returns to his home in New Orleans and discovers through a will that he is white and is now head of a prosperous and influential family. Since mixed-race marriages are illegal, he must renounce his mulatto wife and bastardize his children. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Chesnutt resolves Marchand's dilemma with a surprising plot reversal. Marchand, although white, chooses to pass as a black so that he can keep his wife and children. Thus, by altering the traditional narrative that Cable, Twain, and Howells had developed for their fiction on mixed-race themes, he exposes the issue of race as a social and legal fabrication. Moreover, Chesnutt shows Marchand's awareness that traits of inferiority and superiority are not based on \"blood\" but on other factors. In him Chesnutt has created an admirable male character responsive to human needs and civility rather than to artificial institutions. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Books by Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) include \u003ci\u003eBaxter's Procrustes\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHot-Foot Hannibal\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Conjure Woman\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe House Behind the Cedars\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Marrow of Tradition\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Colonel's Dream\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharles W. Chesnutt \u003c\/b\u003e(1858-1932) was an innovative and influential African American writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His novels published during his lifetime include \u003ci\u003eThe House Behind the Cedars\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Marrow of Tradition\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Colonel's Dream.\u003c\/i\u003e His work also includes\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ethe posthumously published novels \u003ci\u003eA Business Career \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eEvelyn's Husband\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eboth published by University Press of Mississippi\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Press of Mississippi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50726647857426,"sku":"9781578067985","price":38.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7feb015c-4f7b-429b-8e8c-7ce6ba610f90.jpg?v=1734878103","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/paul-marchand-f-m-c-9781578067985","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}