As we traveled along Interstate 10 between New Orleans and "Red Baton," I mused about the girders which held the highway up out of the bayous. What must travel or life in general have been like in that part of Louisianna a century or so ago.

George Washington Cable first collected these seven stories about Louisianna and published them in 1888. He calls them true stories. They are stories from times before his own from 1782 to after the Civil War. At the same time these stories are strange to Cable because life had changed so much in Louisianna between the time that the stories occurred and his own time.

The stories start with the story of Louise who came to Louisianna and almost became the dinner of a local chief. This tragic tale is quickly followed by the "bright and happy" story of Francoise and Suzanne who travel through the "wilds" of Atchafalaya. Alix's story is next. She was once introduced to Marie Antoinette. Then the French Revolution came and Alix lost her first husband. She will be a character that I long admire but I ask you to read the story to see why. Salome Muller was a German who lost most of her family enroute to Louisianna. (Some 1200 of the 1800 who attempted to make that trip never arrived.) Salome became a slave. Yet some 20 years or so later her family took her case to the State Supreme Court to free her. The
"haunted house" is the house of Madame Lalaurie who chose to save her possessions rather than her slaves when a fire burned her house. The story of Attalie Brouillard reminds me of the con men of the movie "The Sting" with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The last story is a diary of a Union woman who lived in the South during the Civil War. To these I would like to add the story of George W Cable who begins his book by telling his readers how he got these other seven stories.

These are true stories from people who lived in Creole Louisianna, a time strange to us now.

Seven unusual, true stories set in Louisiana comprise the reissue of George Washington Cable's STRANGE TRUE STORIES OF LOUISIANA. First published in 1888, these stories are a gold mine of cultural lore and historical facts. As interesting as the stories themselves are the accounts of how Cable acquired them.

"The Young Aunt with White Hair" is set in Spanish occupied Louisiana in 1782 and describes the horrors experienced by a young woman on the long journey to New Orleans from Germany: robbed by sailors on the ship; an Indian attack near the mouth of the Mississippi River, during which her husband and baby are brutally murdered; being held captive by Indians and told she was to be the chief's dinner. Her ordeal was so great that her hair turned snow white in a matter of hours, and she never recovered from the experience.

Humor and suspense make "The Two Sisters" just plain fun to read. Two teenage girls- one a tomboy and one a demure, sweet lady- undertake a dangerous trek across the Atchafalaya swamp to North Louisiana in 1795. It's not only a good story, but the details of clothing, places and people are priceless. "Plaquemine was composed of a church, two stores, as many drinking-shops, and about fifty cabins, one of which was the courthouse. Here lived a multitude of Catalans, Acadians, Negros and Indians. ..It was at Plaquemine that we bade adieu to the old Mississippi.."

The story if "Alix de Morainville" reads like a fairy tale: the birth-deformed baby farmed out to a peasant family; the arranged marriage that turns out to be a love match; the convent stay; the marriage of dear friend Madelaine to Count Louis de la Houssaye and the couple's departure for the Louisiana colony; presentation to Queen Marie Antoinette; Aleix's grand wedding at Notre Dame Cathedral; the onset of the French Revolution; widowhood; rescue; and flight first to England and then to Louisiana.

The other stories are "Salome Muller, The White Slave," "The Haunted House in Royal Street," "Attalie Brouillard," and "War Diary of a Union Woman in the South."

Cleman is one of the foremost authorities on Cable (Cable himself being a much-underappreciated U.S. author) and draws the reader to new insights and appreciations without recourse to flash or intellectual postering. Cleman (as educator and critic)and Cable should both be considered national treasures.

A wonderful story that captures the time and truth of the era. The best part is - it was entertaining to the end.

Benfey spends less time on the famous French painter Edgar Degas and the alleged influence that New Orleans and his Creole relatives had on his work than he does in relating the story of one of Degas' relatives: a brilliant "quadroon" engineer named Norbert Rillieux who invented an efficient steam-driven apparatus for refining sugar.

When you ignore Benfey's racist use of the term "black" to describe people who are far from it, you find important information about the privileges and oppressions experienced by mixed-race Creoles in 19th century New Orleans. Rillieux (who is often falsely listed as a "black" inventor) was a highly respected professional whose predominate white ancestry allowed him to utilize his talents in a way that would not have been possible if he had been black.

One of Rillieux's close friends and major supporter in Louisiana sugar circles was Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish Confederate luminary who later served as Jefferson Davis's Secretary of State. In a nice touch of irony, Benfey compares the image of the "mulatto" in American literature with than of the "Jew" in European literature:

"Almost white, almost free, `oriental,' and effeminate, at once wealthy and a social pariah, the free man of color in his literary depictions occupies much the same place as the Jew in literary Europe. (The first article of the eighteenth-century `Code Noir,' or Black Code demanded the expulsion of the Jews from New Orleans.) Jews and free men of color were difficult to detect; they often LOOKED like white citizens, and passed for such. It was against the radical `otherness' of Jews and free people of color that the proper Englishmen and proper Louisiana Creoles respectively sought to define their own uneasy identity."

Maybe the most important thing for you to know about this book is that it isn't just, or even mostly, about Edgar Degas. If you're in the market solely for an art book about Degas, you may not like this book. What this book is really about is 19th century New Orleans. Degas' 1872-1873 trip is the main theme which the author has used as his framework. Mr. Benfey "improvises" on this theme and goes off in interesting directions. He talks about what made New Orleans unique- the early Creole settlers vs. the "Americans" that arrived after the Louisiana Purchase; the free black population (pre-Civil War) vs. the slaves who became free because of the war; the rupture caused by the war- as New Orleans was occupied by Federal forces through almost all of the conflict. (Many of the local women proved to be fairly feisty in showing their contempt for the Yankees. One woman in the French Quarter supposedly downloaded the contents of a chamber pot onto Admiral Farragut's head. On another occasion, the soldier in charge of keeping order, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler, was riding by some women and they all turned their backs to him. Butler remarked, "those women evidently know which end of them looks best.") After the Civil War the economy, based almost solely on King Cotton, took a beating in the Depression of the 1870's. Yankee "carpetbaggers" were despised. Liberals who wanted integration of the races did battle, sometimes literally, with reactionary forces who yearned for a return to the days of slavery. Mr. Benfey works in some analysis of the writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were interested in some of the above themes. The author does devote a fairly good portion of the book to discussing Degas' "Louisiana Connection," (his mother was born in New Orleans; he had relatives who were involved in the cotton trade; and his younger brother, Rene, left France to try to make his fortune in New Orleans). If you enjoy Degas' art, you will find Mr. Benfey's musings on the portraits and "genre scenes" that Degas did during this period to be interesting and informative. For example, from a purely painterly standpoint, Degas enjoyed the juxtaposition of black and white skin, as well as the white of cotton against the black suits and hats commonly worn by businessmen of the time. Mr. Benfey also, convincingly, shows that Degas' started to use, in these paintings, certain compositional effects- such as slanted floors, the arrangement of figures in interior spaces, and certain hand and head movements- that would shortly reappear in the more famous "ballet paintings." We also see Degas in transition from his early "realistic" phase to a looser, more "Impressionistic" style of painting. I also found it interesting that Degas was fascinated by many things he saw while walking around New Orleans, but he was limited mostly to painting interior scenes because the light of New Orleans was bothering his eyes. (He started to have problems with his vision while serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By the time of his death in 1917 he was nearly blind.) There was enough about Degas and his family and art in this book to satisfy me, plus I enjoyed Mr. Benfey's "improvisations." If, in addition to being a Degas fan, you have any interest in the antebellum and post-Civil War worlds of New Orleans, I think you will get a lot of enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from this book.

This book is a wonderful history of Degas and his family. Anyone who loves art and enjoys history of any kind about New Orleans will like this book.

To tell you the truth, I had to read this book for a class I took this year, which focused on literature from New Orleans. I don't mind reading books for classes; however, once I read the first couple of chapters of The Grandissimes, I thought that this would be one of those books that I would fall asleep reading. It seemed confusing and dealt with issues that did not really pertain to me, but I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting and complex the novel became.
Once the plot started to unfold, the novel grabbed my interest and I grew to respect and be amazed by it. I think that Cable did a great job tying major themes into this piece of literature, such as family pride, Creole lifestyle, Iron Virgins and Southern Belles, and the rigorous expectations of society. The Grandissimes takes place right after the Louisiana Purchase (1803), which allowed Cable to encompass ideas that many people are familiar with, such as a fear of change. The characters in the book where well developed and each seemed to carry their own message to the audience. For example, it is easy for everyone to relate to Joseph Frowenfeld, an American who finds himself wrapped up in the Creole society. This character was forced to be an outsider and the novel depicts how he dealt with the divisions of class and status.
The Grandissimes is titled after the Creole family from New Orleans who held most of the power and influence in society at the time. Throughout the book, the family must struggle through twists and turns of deceit and unexpected events, while still holding up their Old South charm. This book does a great job portraying how the family struggled to keep their position and power in society, in order to stay true to their roots.
If you are thinking of reading this book, I would suggest giving it a try. It may seem very complicated and choppy at first, but it will eventually tie together to make a great story. However, the only downfall to this book is that I could not truly like it until it was done and I reflected on it. It is one of those books that ends up surprising you!

Cable's epic masterpiece details the adventures of a young protagonist stranded in New Orleans after his family succumbs to yellow fever. Through an acquaintance with a well-connected Doctor, he is able to enter a society that few people get to experience -- upper class New Orleans.

Mark Twain said that if you read the Grandissimes, you wouldn't have to go to New Orleans, because by reading it, you have already visited. Cable, with extensive detail, humor and intricate commentary on the Old South, has written a novel that stands the test of time, even though some of the characters (Agricola Fullister) do not.

Although the book is at points tenuous, the characters are vibrant and interesting enough to keep the plot moving along.

Of course, the most controversial aspect of The Grandissimes is the ending, which many feel is a let down after pages and pages of emotional build-up. Without giving anything away, the finals pages are somewhat of a disappointment. But the ending in its entirety is a well done.

Overall, the Grandissimes is a fascinating look at class and culture of the Creoles. It is recommended to anybody who enjoys reading New Orleans literature or literature in general.

This farsighted inditement of Southern society is still powerful today.

Much of the story is seen through the eyes of Joseph Frowenfeld, a young Northerner of German background who has just moved to Louisiana with his family. He is soon left bereft by yellow fever, and with nothing to go back to is befriended by several kind souls, chief among them Honore Grandissime, the scion of a filthy rich Creole family.

He is quickly dismayed by the inequities of New Orleans society, a confession that prompts his new friend to pour out his heart to him. Honore, who knows what his family is, longs to reach out to his Mulatto half-brother and share the family business with him. He also wants to do right by the beautiful and virtuous Aurora Nancanou and her daughter Clotilde, who have been left destitute (by genteel standards, anyway) after Honore's father murdered Aurora's husband and swindled her. Honore would like to court Auroura, but honorable man that he is doesn't want to take advantage of her by performing his good deed barely before knocking on the door. In short, he wants an end to the moral decay of the old South.

He is not so deluded, however, as to think he can live happily ever after married to Auroura with his brother at his side. The Grandissime family will not give up it's ill-gotten wealth and prestige without a fight, and with few exceptions save his delightful nephew and protege Raoul - who is still too young to have a voice in family affairs - he is virtually alone.

Inspired by his new friend, Honore finally makes his lonely stand, unsure that his efforts will bear fruit - or even that they won't end with a Grandissime bullet in his back.

Honore must rank as one of the most likable of literary heroes - a good man who you can unreservedly sympathise with and root for. The point is not that he succeeds - we are left very much uncertain on that point - but that he has the strength to be the first to fight for what he knows in his heart is right. It's a struggle that many concientious white people are facing now long after this book was written.

You get the feel of life in New Orleans at that time.