Contending Forces
Published on 3. October 2023
464 pages
978-1-4549-5155-1 (ISBN)
Description
Sappho Clark-beautiful, mysterious, Southern-arrives in Boston to earn her living as a stenographer. She lodges with the Smith family and immediately becomes a source of fascination to the them: Ma Smith is impressed by Sappho's financial independence; Dora Smith admires Sappho's quiet self-possession; and Will Smith, Dora's brother, falls madly in love with Sappho. But as Sappho enters the Smiths' community, it becomes clear that her beauty is a lure to bad actors, including someone who entertains dark suspicions about her past. . .
A murder mystery, the story of a friendship, and a romance set in Boston's thriving, politically active middle-class Black community, Contending Forces is an unjustly forgotten American classic.
A murder mystery, the story of a friendship, and a romance set in Boston's thriving, politically active middle-class Black community, Contending Forces is an unjustly forgotten American classic.
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Person
Pauline E. Hopkins (1859-1930) was a Black novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes. Hopkins grew up in Boston, Massachusetts.
Content
- Intro
- Half Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction by Alyssa Cole
- Preface
- I. A Retrospect of the Past
- II. The Days "Before the War"
- III. "Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before"
- IV. The Tragedy
- V. Ma Smith's Lodging house
- VI. Ma Smith's Lodging house. -Concluded
- VII. Friendship
- VIII. The Sewing circle
- IX. "Love Took up the Harp of Life"
- X. The Fair
- XI. The Fair .-Concluded
- XII. A Colored Politician
- XIII. The American Colored League
- XIV. Luke Sawyer Speaks to the League
- XV. Will Smith's Defense of His Race
- XVI. John Langley Consults Madam Frances
- XVII. The Canterbury Club Dinner
- XVIII. What Easter Sunday Brought
- XIX. The Bitter Arrow
- XX. Mother-love
- XXI. After Many Days
- XXII. "So He Bringeth Them Into Their Desired Haven"
