The fair Mississippian

by Charles Egbert Craddock

"The fair Mississippian" by Charles Egbert Craddock is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set on an isolated Mississippi River plantation, it follows Edward Desmond, a brilliant but newly impoverished scholar who becomes tutor to the wealthy widow Honoria Faurie’s three sons. The story promises class friction, wounded pride, and a possible attraction between tutor and mistress, threaded through with a local “haunting” and the social theatrics of neighboring planters. The opening of the novel shows Desmond’s fall from promise after his father’s death and his reluctant arrival at Great Oaks, where Mr. Stanlett’s tactless chatter about Honoria’s fortune (tied to widowhood) and a parrot’s mocking song sharpen Desmond’s sense of humiliation. He meets the unexpectedly young and commanding Honoria, then lies awake to hear furtive footsteps on the stairs; Reginald explains the household’s ghostly legend. At breakfast Honoria’s birthday and Chub’s earnest “trading‑boat” gift reveal the family’s dynamics. Desmond asserts discipline, vetoing a holiday, choosing the library as a schoolroom, and quelling globe‑spinning and sulks; he spars with Reginald over the value of Greek and begins to win a measure of order while spending his nights reading and writing in solitude. As winter wears on, neighbors Colonel and Mrs. Kentopp arrive; Desmond even resists being summoned mid‑lessons, signaling the boundaries he intends to keep.