Sep 4, 2008

The Passing of Grandison | Summary

When it is said that it was done to please a woman, there ought perhaps to be enough said to explain anything; for what a man will not do to please a woman is yet to be discovered. Nevertheless, it might be well to state a few preliminary facts to make it clear why young Dick Owens tried to run one of his father’s negro men off to Canada.

So begins Chesnutt’s story, disarming the reader immediately by making her or him think this will be a tale more of romance than race. Within this context of “a man pleasing a woman,” Chesnutt satirizes the stereotype...