Old Creole Days (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): A Story of Creole Life

By George Washington Cable

Published in 1879, this collection consists of seven short stories portraying Creole life in New Orleans. While glamorizing an exotic and enticing city, Cable also introduces social satire to round out the picture of this incredibly diverse locale. The stories are notable for their easy humor, lack of sentimentality, and pioneering use of dialect.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Feb 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781411435728

George Washington Cable

George Washington Cable (1844–1925) was an American writer born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Cable’s family was initially wealthy due to their position as slaveholders. Yet, after his father’s untimely death they lost most of their fortune. The young Cable enrolled in the military and fought as a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War. It proved to be a lifechanging experience that would influence his future endeavors. In 1870, he became a journalist and spent years honing his skills before publishing his first novel, The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life. Cable’s work is best known for its exploration of Southern politics, culture and race relations.

Reviews for Old Creole Days (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

[dmarsh451 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fly in amber of a place and time. A bit hard to follow because some dialogue written in dialect. When the Creoles are speaking French to each other, it's in standard English. If they're speaking English it's written in dialect. It took me a while to be able to hear them. There is a lot here about the careful measurements of racial composition. Many plots turn on the possibility of 'mixing' occurring or having occurred. Though some witness or document usually shows up to prove it wasn't really so. Cable has been called a precursor to Faulkner. I was questioning this a minute ago, but now that I have written this... Loving descriptions of the city. An evocative curio that's maybe not for everyone.