The Marrow of Tradition: A Novel of a Southern City

In this vividly modern retelling, the great American novel The Marrow of Tradition returns to life. In the turbulent spring of 1898, the town of Wellington, North Carolina, simmers with racial tension. Dr. William Miller, a respected Black physician, and his wife Janet, the unacknowledged half-sister of the town's white social leader, navigate a world where justice is fragile and violence lurks just beneath the surface. When a series of provocations—a forged letter, a brutal crime, and a dangerous conspiracy—ignite the town's fears, the Miller family and their community are caught in a devastating riot that tests every loyalty. Charles W. Chesnutt's masterpiece of realism and moral inquiry has been freshly rendered into clear, natural English, preserving the story's dramatic tension and its timeless questions about race, justice, and humanity. Part of Timeless Classics.