Pauline Hopkins (1859–1930)

It's not the weirdest book I've read, but it's close. Reuel Briggs is a mixed-race medical student and scientist passing for white who falls in love with a black singer, who dies. Through his understanding of early-20th-century pseudopsychology, he's able to revive her, but she's lost her memory. So he tells her she's white and they get married. Unable to find a job in the United States, he goes to Africa as the medical advisor on an expedition, where he finds out that he's actually the king of a long-lost civilization that is the progenitor of the rest of the world... and that the queen of said civilization is identical to his wife. Things only get weirder from there. The book is never quite coherent-- it was serialized, and parts don't join up in a way that makes me think it was written from month to month-- and very rarely good, but it is entertaining. Its racial politics are complicated and not entirely understandable, but mostly progressive. And, to interest me, there's a lot of nutty stuff about the early history of psychology going on.… (altro)

On the back it's advertised as being "the story of Reuel Briggs, a medical student who couldn't care less about being black and appreciating African history, but finds himself in Ethiopia...to raid the country of lost treasures," but instead ends up learning "the painful truth about blood, race, and the half of his history that was never told." In actuality, the book, written by an African-American woman in 1902, starts off with Briggs' experiments in spiritualism, incorporating fantasy/science fiction themes, then moves on to an Ethiopian lost world and finishing with a gothic climax. While the main point of the novel is illustrating the lack of difference between the races, it uses an odd, hodgepodge assortment of themes to do so.… (altro)

For who Hopkins was -- a black woman writing in America in the nineteenth century -- her work is startlingly good. In reading her novels, it is good to remember that she wrote serially. Each issue of the Colored American Magazine (which she edited, as well) contained a new chapter of her work. This was true of many nineteenth century authors. A good reading strategy is to read one or two chapters before bed or in the morning. I often advise the same strategy with Dickens.

Hopkins's stories usually revolve around the implications and results of slavery, but take melodramatic or fantastic turns in order to create the most emotional impact. Sometimes, like in Of One Blood, this can lead to a ludicrous (but still hilariously readable) story. Sometimes it creates a truly moving novel, as in Hopkins's classic Contending Forces.

The complaint I would lodge is not with Hopkins's writing. Rather, the format of the book makes her novels less readable. My copy is about five inches tall and four inches across. As a result of this small size and the volume of the writing it anthologizes, the book is unwieldy and has very small type. The ornamental design of the book is excellent, and its size is in keeping with the rest of the series, but I hope there will be a different reprint of Hopkins's better novels soon.… (altro)