The Chinaberry Tree
  • Published:
    Nov-2013
  • Formats:
    Print / eBook
  • Main Genre:
    General Fiction
  • Pages:
    352
  • Purchase:
  • Share:
Adultery, incest, and questions of racial identity simmer beneath the tranquil surface of suburban life in this novel, set in a small New Jersey town of the early 1900s. Lovely young Laurentine is obsessed with her "bad blood," inherited from a common-law interracial union. Proud and independent, she longs for the respectability of a conventional marriage. Laurentine's vivacious and self-confident cousin, Melissa, also aspires to "marry up." But a family secret shadows Melissa's dreams and ambitions as she approaches an explosive revelation.


African-American editor, poet, essayist, and novelist Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882â€"1961) was a prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance. An editor of the NAACP magazine The Crisis, she was also an editor and co-author of the African-American children's magazine, TheBrownies' Book. Her third novel, The Chinaberry Tree, draws upon elements of Greek tragedy in its powerful depiction of interracial love and marriage. The tale also offers a modern perspective on the struggle of its African-American heroines toward self-knowledge.
People / Creatures
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EDITIONS
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    • First Edition
    • Nov-2013
    • Dover Publications
    • Trade Paperback
    • ISBN: 0486493229
    • ISBN13: 9780486493220
    •  
    • Sep-1995
    • Gale Group
    • Paperback
    • ISBN: 0783813945
    • ISBN13: 9780783813943
    •  
    • Jan-1970
    • Praeger
    • Hardcover
    • ISBN: 0837119197
    • ISBN13: 9780837119199
    •  
    • Dec-1995
    • Cengage Gale
    • Hardcover
    • ISBN: 081611627X
    • ISBN13: 9780816116270
    •  
    • Nov-2013
    • Dover Publications
    • eBook (Kindle)
    •  
    • Nov-2013
    • Dover Publications
    • eBook
    • ISBN: 0486782778
    • ISBN13: 9780486782775
    •  
    • Oct-2025
    • Rare Treasure Editions
    • eBook
    • ISBN: 1773230166
    • ISBN13: 9781773230160



View the Complete Jessie Redmon Fauset Book List