Story summary
Streszczenie książki Dom za cedrami
- 8 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
A stranger follows a young woman down Front Street and finds the sister he left behind in a garden of cedars.
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Dom za cedrami — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 8 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 4 h 35 min3 h 35 min fast, 5 h 25 min slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 65 100
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Średni longer sentences, everyday words
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1900by Charles W. Chesnutt
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Dom za cedrami in short
The House Behind the Cedars follows a family that tries to cross the color line in the South just after the Civil War. John Warwick has already crossed it, and he brings his sister Rena over to share his luck. She enters a world of tournaments, balls, and a loving suitor named George Tryon.
What Dom za cedrami is about
Picture walking back into the town where you grew up, in a new name and a fine linen suit, hoping that nobody knows your face. That is how The House Behind the Cedars begins. A tall stranger signs a hotel register as John Warwick of South Carolina, then follows a young woman to a house behind a cedar hedge and recognizes his sister Rena.
Charles W. Chesnutt wrote this novel of the South after the Civil War, when law and custom still decided who counted as white. Warwick has crossed the color line. Now he offers his sister the same chance.
Dla kogo. Readers who love novels about concealed identities and painful choices will enjoy this story, especially those drawn to the postwar South. It also appeals to readers of romances shaped by family loyalty and the pressures of society.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A brother comes home under a false name
John Warwick steps off a steamboat into Patesville, North Carolina, in a linen suit and a Panama hat. The hotel clerk sees only a rich lawyer from South Carolina. In truth Warwick was born here and has not seen the town in ten years.
Then he follows a tall young woman into the poor end of town, to a garden of roses behind a screen of cedars. It is Rena, the little sister who once cried when he left.
That evening he tells his mother, Molly Walden, the story of his rise. He says his motherless little boy needs a relative of his own blood. Mis' Molly begs him not to take her last child, but he describes the life Rena could have, and the mother slowly gives in. Frank Fowler, the cooper's son across the street, carries Rena's bag to the boat with a heavy heart.
A visit made out of love becomes a quiet bargain that costs a mother her daughter.
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A tournament makes Rena a queen
Within a year Rena has a new name, Rowena Warwick.
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Rena's conscience and her brother's argument collide
Tryon wants a wedding date, and Rena asks for a week.
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One afternoon in Patesville breaks the engagement
Tryon follows by the evening train, sent by his mother's letter to collect an old claim in Patesville.
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Two letters and the history behind the cedars
Tryon spends the night in his hotel room, caught between disgust and grief.
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Rena chooses her own people
Warwick arrives in Patesville and finds his sister weak and hysterical.
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A schoolteacher, a suitor, and a party
Rena wants to teach the children of freed people.
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Trouble in Sampson County and a letter in the woods
The road to Sampson County runs through miles of pine and sand.
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Passing and the price of the color line
The book asks what a person owes to a lie that the world forces on her.
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How Chesnutt tells the story
Chesnutt tells the tale with a narrator who steps forward often.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Rena Walden A beautiful young woman of mixed blood who steps into a white world at her brother's urging and longs for love and honest work.
- John Warwick Rena's brother, a successful South Carolina lawyer passing as white, who wants his sister to share the life he built.
- George Tryon A young white landowner from North Carolina who falls in love with Rena and must face what his pride tells him.
- Mis' Molly Walden Rena's mother, a free woman of color who lives behind the cedars and gives up her children for their own good.
- Frank Fowler The cooper's son across the street, a quiet and faithful friend who has loved Rena since childhood and asks nothing in return.
- Judge Straight An old Patesville lawyer who once helped John Walden leave town and who quietly tries to protect Rena.
- Jeff Wain A boastful, light-skinned planter and school committee chairman who hires Rena as a teacher and wants her for himself.
- Blanche Leary The demure orphaned daughter of an old friend of Tryon's mother, favored as his bride, who waits patiently for his heart to turn.
How it ends (spoiler)
Frank finds Rena delirious in the thicket and carries her home to Patesville in his cart. She is dying of the fever she took in the swamp. She thanks him as her best friend, and she passes away at sunset with her mother and Frank beside her. Tryon, driving in at last with a loving offer, finds mourning crepe on the door and learns from a neighbor that Rena is dead.
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Pytania o Dom za cedrami
What is The House Behind the Cedars about?
It follows Rena Walden and her brother John, who is passing as a white lawyer. He brings her into white society, where she falls in love, and the novel shows what happens when a hidden family secret meets the color line.
What does the title The House Behind the Cedars mean?
It names the gray house in Patesville where Rena's mother lives behind a hedge of cedars. The hedge hides the family from view, so the house stands for the secrecy, shelter, and shame that shape their lives.
Is The House Behind the Cedars based on a true story?
It is a novel, not a true story. Chesnutt set it a few years after the Civil War in North Carolina and South Carolina, and he drew on real laws and customs about race that governed that world.
What does passing for white mean in this book?
Passing means living as a white person while having a Black ancestor. John Warwick does this with the help of a lawyer's advice about South Carolina law, and the book asks what the choice costs those who make it.
Is The House Behind the Cedars worth reading?
Readers find a clear story with strong scenes, from a tournament of paper knights to a storm in the pine woods. The characters are vivid and the questions about identity, love, and loyalty still feel close.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Chesnutt, Charles W. The House Behind the Cedars. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-behind-the-cedars.
Chesnutt, C. W. (2026). The house behind the cedars. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-behind-the-cedars (Original work published 1900)
Chesnutt, Charles W. The House Behind the Cedars. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-behind-the-cedars.
@book{chesnutt2026house,
author = {Chesnutt, Charles W.},
title = {The House Behind the Cedars},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-behind-the-cedars},
note = {First published 1900}
}
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