7 h 55 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 55 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a new life means hiding the family you love?
In Patesville, North Carolina, not long after the Civil War, a well-dressed stranger searches for a familiar house. He is John Warwick, once John Walden, a man of mixed ancestry who passes as white and practices law in South Carolina. Now he returns with an offer for his sister Rena: the chance to cross the same color line.
Rena longs for love and belonging. Her new life brings her close to George Tryon, a wealthy white landowner who does not know her background. Their mother, Molly Walden, fears for her children and struggles to let them go. In The House Behind the Cedars, Charles W. Chesnutt asks what opportunity costs when it depends on concealing the truth.
What you’ll discover
- A brother's tempting offer Follow John as he invites Rena into the life he has built by passing.
- Love shaped by secrets Watch Rena and George grow close while her hidden ancestry puts their love at risk.
- The pull of home Meet Molly, whose love for her children makes the prospect of separation painful.
- Loyalty without display Discover Frank Fowler, whose quiet devotion offers another view of love and trust.
- The power of prejudice Consider how the color line shapes choices about identity, class, family, and belonging.
Who will love it
For readers who love American history told through a personal story, and anyone drawn to questions of identity, class and family loyalty.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A brother returns to Patesville
- John explains the life he has built
- Rena learns to become someone new
- A suitor wins Rena's heart
- The secret is exposed in Patesville
- Home again, and new pressures
- What the story says about race and choice
- How Chesnutt tells the story
- Why the book still speaks
Who’s who
- Rena WaldenA gentle, intelligent young woman of mixed ancestry who is offered a new life as a white woman and longs for love and belonging.
- John WarwickRena's older brother, born John Walden, who passes as white, practices law in South Carolina and wants his sister to share his chances.
- Molly WaldenTheir mother, a free woman of color living in the house behind the cedars, who fears for her children and cannot easily let them go.
- George TryonA wealthy young white landowner of an old Southern family who falls in love with Rena without knowing her background.
- Frank FowlerA steady, loyal young Black man in Patesville who has loved Rena since boyhood and works quietly to deserve her trust.
- Jeff WainA well-off man from the rural community of Sandy Run, where Rena goes to teach, who pursues her with pressure and a sense of entitlement.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 55 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 10 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The House Behind the Cedars
by Charles W. Chesnutt · 1900
John offers Rena a new life passing as white, putting love, family and identity at stake.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The House Behind the Cedars is a novel by Charles W. Chesnutt, published in 1900.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A brother returns to Patesville
The novel opens in Patesville, a small North Carolina town, where a stranger walks the streets on foot, looking for a certain house. He is a polished, well dressed man, and the townspeople take him for a white gentleman of standing. He is in fact John Warwick, who was born in Patesville as John Walden.
He is heading for the house of Molly Walden, his mother, which sits behind a row of cedar trees on the edge of town. Chesnutt gives the house a hushed, set apart feeling. It is the place where the family lives half hidden, close to the town and yet outside it.
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What is The House Behind the Cedars about?
It tells of John and Rena Walden, siblings of mixed ancestry who can pass as white in the post-Civil War South. Their choices about love, family and identity show what the color line demanded of ordinary people.
What does passing mean in this book?
Passing means living as a member of another racial group, here as white, without revealing one's Black ancestry. John and Rena do so to gain opportunities denied to people of color, at a heavy personal cost.
Is The House Behind the Cedars a true story?
It is fiction, published in 1900. Chesnutt drew on the world he knew, and Patesville is based on his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. He is said to have been inspired by the lives of people he knew.
The author
Charles W. Chesnutt
1858–1932 · American novelist and story writer
Charles W. Chesnutt (1858–1932) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and activist. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, grew up in North Carolina, and returned to Cleveland in 1883. He published The Conjure Woman in 1899, The House Behind the Cedars in 1900, and The Marrow of Tradition in 1901.
More by Charles W. Chesnutt
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