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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 186 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 186 pagesAbout this book
What if the ancestry you hide holds the key to a world you never knew existed?
In Boston, gifted medical student Reuel Briggs struggles with poverty while concealing his African ancestry. His unusual gifts draw him toward the powers of the mind. Then he hears Dianthe Lusk sing. The Black singer awakens a connection he cannot explain, while his wealthy friend Aubrey Livingston offers help—and desires Dianthe himself.
An expedition to Africa promises Reuel a chance to improve his circumstances, but takes him far from Dianthe as danger gathers around her. His journey leads toward Telassar, a hidden Ethiopian city, and a different understanding of his ancestry. In Of One Blood, Pauline E. Hopkins brings romance, visions, and family secrets into a challenge to American racism.
What you’ll discover
- A voice beyond explanation Dianthe's singing stirs a mysterious recognition that draws Reuel toward her.
- Friendship shadowed by rivalry Aubrey's wealth offers hope, but his desire for Dianthe threatens the bond between friends.
- A hidden Ethiopian city Enter Telassar, where African civilization takes a central place in Reuel's search for identity.
- Dreams that cross distance Visions and strange recognitions bind people together as their lives move apart.
- Human worth beyond ancestry Hopkins challenges racial hierarchy through closely bound lives, concealed ancestry, and family secrets.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who enjoy Gothic mysteries, hidden identities, ghost stories and lost-world adventures. It also speaks to anyone curious about early Black American fiction and stories where romance and race share one plot.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A vision draws Reuel toward Dianthe
- Saving Dianthe leaves her identity hidden
- Marriage begins with a dangerous separation
- Livingston turns knowledge into a threat
- A vision exposes the missing letters
- Ethiopia offers another account of ancestry
- Telassar recognizes a king in Reuel
- The color line cannot explain kinship
- Romance and mystery carry the argument
Who’s who
- Reuel BriggsA brilliant, lonely medical student and student of mesmerism who hides his ancestry and longs for love and a place in the world.
- Dianthe LuskA gifted singer from the Fisk jubilee troupe who loses her memory and her voice and must find out who she is.
- Aubrey LivingstonReuel's charming Southern friend, engaged to Molly, who hides his true designs behind kindness and wants what is not his.
- Molly VanceA warm, generous heiress and Aubrey's fiancée who takes Dianthe into her home and treats her as a sister.
- Charlie VanceMolly's cheerful, joking brother who joins the African expedition for fun and learns hard lessons about loyalty and race.
- Jim TitusA Southern servant who travels with the expedition and keeps his own secret orders from a powerful friend.
- AiThe wise prime minister of the hidden city of Telassar, who watches for the return of a long-awaited king.
- Professor StoneThe English scholar who leads the expedition and believes ancient Ethiopia taught the world its first arts.
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Of One Blood in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Of One Blood
by Pauline E. Hopkins · 1902
Reuel Briggs sees a stranger's face in a Boston storm, then hears her sing and cannot let her go.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Of one blood have I made all races of men.”
In short
A young doctor sits alone in a Boston storm and sees a woman's face in the dark window. That evening he hears her sing on a concert stage, and he knows her face.
Of One Blood at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 30 min2 h 45 min fast, 4 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 49,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1902by Pauline E. Hopkins
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A lonely student sees a face in the storm
On a freezing November afternoon in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Reuel Briggs sits in a bare room with his books. He is a poor medical student, proud and so lonely that he wonders whether life is worth the struggle.
He has been reading about the hidden powers of the mind, about trances, visions and strange healings. He believes every word, and he is sure he has such powers himself. As dusk falls he sees a lovely woman's face in the window. Then she is gone.
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Reuel Briggs sees a stranger's face in a Boston storm, then hears her sing and cannot let her go.
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Details
- First published
- 1902
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 55 min
- Level
- Medium level
- Paperback
- 186 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 186 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 298 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 298 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Delivery and returns
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For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Hopkins, Pauline E. Of One Blood. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/of-one-blood.
Hopkins, P. E. (2026). Of one blood. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/of-one-blood (Original work published 1902)
Hopkins, Pauline E. Of One Blood. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/of-one-blood.
@book{hopkins2026one,
author = {Hopkins, Pauline E.},
title = {Of One Blood},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/of-one-blood},
note = {First published 1902}
}
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What is Of One Blood about?
It follows Reuel Briggs, a Harvard medical student with a hidden past, who wakes a singer named Dianthe Lusk from a death-like trance, marries her, and travels to Africa, where he finds a lost Ethiopian city and a dangerous secret at home.
Who wrote Of One Blood and when?
Pauline E. Hopkins wrote it. It first appeared as a serial in the Colored American Magazine in 1902 and 1903. It is a work of fiction that mixes romance, mystery and argument about race.
What does the title Of One Blood mean?
It comes from a line of scripture saying that all races of men were made of one blood. The story uses it to argue that racial divisions are false and that people are bound by common origin.
The author
Pauline E. Hopkins
1859–1930 · American novelist and journalist
Pauline E. Hopkins was an American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She was born in Portland, Maine, in 1859 and lived in Boston. She wrote Contending Forces (1900) and Of One Blood, serialized in 1902–1903. She worked for the Colored American Magazine and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1930.
“Of one blood have I made all races of men.”
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