The Sport of the Gods (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Paul Laurence Dunbar
- First Published: 1901
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Naturalism
- Time of Work: The last quarter of the nineteenth century
- Setting: The South and New York City
- Principal Characters: Berry Hamilton, Fannie Hamilton, Joe Hamilton, Kitty Hamilton, Maurice Oakley, Francis Oakley, Leslie Oakley, Mr. Skaggs, Hattie Sterling
- Genres: Long fiction, Naturalistic literature
- Subjects: Family or family life, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Prisoners, Racism, South or Southerners, New York City, Yards or backyards, Eighteenth century, Singing or singers, Reconstruction
- Locales: Harlem, NY, South (U.S.)
The Novel
The Sport of the Gods is Paul Laurence Dunbar’s last novel and in many aspects his best. It is the story of the destruction of the Hamilton family, who fall from their status as a relatively wealthy African American family in an unnamed Southern city to imprisonment and degradation in New York City. The novel combines the conventions of naturalism and sentimental fiction to give the reader one of the first descriptions of the effect of city life on African Americans.
The first chapters of the novel describe the idyllic life of Berry and Fannie Hamilton...
[The entire page is 2634 words long]
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