| Top | Primary Works

Old Creole Days, 1879; The Grandissimes, 1880, rev. 1883; Madame Delphine, 1881; Dr. Sevier, 1884; John March, Southerner, 1894; The Negro Question, ed. Arlin Turner, 1955.

Achievement

" ... when it comes down to moral honesty, limpid honesty, and utterly blameless piety, the Apostles were mere policemen (compared) to Cable." - Mark Twain

In his writings, George W. Cable sketched life of his native Louisiana and New Orleans. In a time of Howellsian "smiling aspects" as representative of American society, Cable wrote of violence and death, of racial intermarriage, and of contradictions and complexities. Recognized today as one the South's most acute social critics, Cable attacked political corruption and advocated civil rights for the Blacks. He wrote of a vanishing Creole culture, of social classes, and of the baggage of the past and its consequences on the present.

| Top | Selected Bibliography

Bikle, Lucy Leffingwell Cable. George W. Cable; his life and letters, by his daughter. NY: Scribner's, 1928. PS1246 .B5

Butcher, Philip. George W. Cable. NY: Twayne, 1962. PS1246 .B78

Cardwell, Guy. Twins of genius. (Cable and Twain) East Lansing: Michigan SCP, 1953. PS1333 .C3

Clark, William B. "Cable and the Theme of Miscegenation in Old Creole Days and The Grandissimes." Mississippi Quarterly 30 (Fall 1977): 597-609.

Cleman, John. George Washington Cable revisited. NY: Twayne, 1996. PS1246 .C54

Eaton, Richard B. "George W. Cable and the Historical Romance." Southern Literary Journal 8 (Fall 1985): 84-94.

Fulweiler, Howard W. "Of Time and the River: 'Ancestral Nonsense' vs. Inherited Guilt in Cable's 'Belles Demoiselles Plantation.'" Mid-continent American Studies Journal 7 (Fall 1966): 53-59.

Hubbell, Jay B. The South in American Literature: 1607-1900. Durham: Duke UP, 1954.

Jones, Gavin. "Signifying Songs: The Double Meaning of Black Dialect in the Work of George Washington Cable." American literary history 9.2 (Sumr 1997): 244-268.

Payne, James R. "GWC's 'My Politics': Context and Revision of a Southern Memoir." In Multicultural Autobiography: American Lives, ed. James R. Payne, 94-113. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1992.

Petry, Alice H. A Genius in His Way: The Art of Cable's Old Creole Days. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1988.

---. "Universal and Particular: The Local-Color Phenomenon Reconsidered." American Literary Realism: 1870-1910 12 (Sprg 1979): 111-26.

Pugh, Griffith T. "GWC." Mississippi Quarterly 20 (Sprg 1967): 69-76.

Roberson, William H. GWC: An Annotated Bibliography. 1982.

Rubin, Louis D. George W. Cable: the life and times of a Southern Heretic. NY: Pegasus, 1969. PS1246 .R8

Turner, Arlin. George W. Cable, a biography. Durham: Duke UP, 1956. PS1246 .T8

---, ed. Critical Essays on GWC. Boston: Hall, 1980.

| Top | Study Questions

1. (a) Consider and discuss how mob violence as represented in the charivari scene in "Jean-ah Poquelin" prefigures lynch mob and other violence in the South of Cable's day and in later periods.

(b) Consider how the critical realist Cable undercuts romantic myths of the "noble aristocracy" of the "Old South."

2. (a) In an essay, discuss the significance of Cable's method of representing American language in relation to his themes. Hint: Remember that American language does not always mean English. Consider his representation of communication in French and, depending on which of Cable's works are being studied, other languages.

(b) Consider residual romantic tendencies in the fiction of the southern realist George Washington Cable.

(c) In an essay, discuss and demonstrate--with specific references to passages of Cable's fiction--how Cable undercuts ethnic stereotyping in his work.

MLA Style Citation of this Web Page

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 5: Late Nineteenth Century - George Washington Cable." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap5/cable.html (provide page date or date of your login).  

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